Barber Electronics Direct Drive

3 knobs and the center one is push-pull type. I love the sweep of controls, no garbage and useless settings throughout the entire range!

I have never heard a pedal as tubey as this! I've been buying and selling a lot of dirt pedals (low gain & high gain) and here's a few of them:

- mi audio blues pro > boomy
- mi audio blue boy deluxe > solidstate-ish
- mi audio crunch box > fake sounding, fizzy and doesn't clean up
- emma reezafratzitz > a little better than crunch box but still transistorized and 'wannabe' sounding.

... these pedals that i sold sounds very sterile & solidstate-ish. The range of controls aren't all useful.

Only the Direct Drive made me satisfied and it has surpassed the expectations of my 'very picky' ears. Now i just need only 1 pedal and I just backoff my guitar volume for cleaner overdrive sounds.. and yes, it does cleans up beautifully.

I liked the big pots inside the pedal, on my experience big potentiometers tend to last longer than the smaller ones. I don't need any backup.

I only mailed Dave just to say thanks & how I appreciate the pedal. He responded so quick just to say welcome.

Words can't even describe how intelligent and creative this pedal is. Highly Recommended for every guitarist!

It's easy to use. There are three knobs, one with a push pull on the tone pot. Very easy to dial in whatever sounds it's capable of.

There is a sheet of paper that describes the pedal and various options.

I play a MIA strat s/s/s through a Carvin Nomad and a Kustom Coupe. The Nomad has a great clean channel and a muddy soak channel so I was looking for good OD pedal. I bought the Direct Drive along with a Fulltone OCD to test both side by side. After two weeks I found myself able to objectively review these pedals. The DD offers great OD type gain but is a bit more compressed sounding than the OCD. But the tone it gives you is thick and warm. As an OD pedal it's pretty good too.

It's not as reactive to the amp and guitar as the OCD. When the amp is played at lower volumes the DD has more gain on tap than the OCD but when you crank the volume on the amp the OCD really pushes some sweet sounds while the DD stays, more or less, the same tone wise. But for what it is it's very nice. You could use this as a classic rock/blues distortion pedal with no problem. It also reacts well to guitar volume give you some more tonal options.

One issue I had with it was the noise it made with the gain turned up past the half way mark. There was a noticable hum. I do play a single coil strat but I also have 4 other OD/Distortion boxs and the DD was easily the noisiest at full gain. This might not be a big issue with humbuckers but I found it pretty annoying with my setup. I'm going to give it a 9 though, because it does sound nice. If it weren't for the hum I'd give it a 10

Looks to be well made and I've never heard of these being anything but rock solid.

I doubt you'de find a better company than Barber. If you go to their website you'll see a list of mods that can be done at home by the avid do-it-yourselfer. Now that's cool. Over time I'm sure this pedal will have lots of popular mods making it even more versitle. This could become the next Rat as far as mods go.

I've alse heard that the company goes out of it's way to be supportive and helpful to it's customers.

I play blues and classic rock. I ended up returning the pedal because I found that the OCD was a better OD pedal for my needs and I already have a modded Rat2 for distortion. If I didn't have the Rat I would probably keep the Direct Drive and use it as a heavier distortion and maybe try out some of the mods and see what happens. But even though it wasn't for me "as is" I have to admit that it's an awesome pedal with some great tones. If it weren't for the noise at high gain it would be darn near perfect. If you don't have a good OD or distortion pedal this one is worth checking out. With all the great OD pedals out there I don't know why people are paying outragous prices for reissue Tube Screamers. These new OD pedals offer those tones and more. For $120 on the street it's a hard deal to beat.

BTW there is a great clip on youtube comparing the OCD, Crunch Box and Direct Drive. While I haven't tried the Crunch Box I can tell you that the sounds of the OCD and DD represented there are very accurate.

3 knobs and the center one is push-pull type. I love the sweep of controls, no garbage and useless settings throughout the entire range!

I have never heard a pedal as tubey as this! I've been buying and selling a lot of dirt pedals (low gain & high gain) and here's a few of them:

- mi audio blues pro > boomy
- mi audio blue boy deluxe > solidstate-ish
- mi audio crunch box > fake sounding, fizzy and doesn't clean up
- emma reezafratzitz > a little better than crunch box but still transistorized and 'wannabe' sounding.

... these pedals that i sold sounds very sterile & solidstate-ish. The range of controls aren't all useful.

Only the Direct Drive made me satisfied and it has surpassed the expectations of my 'very picky' ears. Now i just need only 1 pedal and I just backoff my guitar volume for cleaner overdrive sounds.. and yes, it does cleans up beautifully. This pedal is very transparent, so shred carefully coz' it won't hide your mistakes!

Perfect 10!

I liked the big pots inside the pedal, on my experience big potentiometers tend to last longer than the smaller ones. I don't need any backup.

I only e-mailed Dave just to say thanks & how I appreciate the pedal. He responded so quick just to say welcome.

Words can't even describe how powerful this pedal is. Highly recommended for every guitarist. Forget the hype of other boutique pedals, this is the only thing you need!

3 Knobs, very basic. The tone knob is push pull. The "up" position will give you more low end harmonics.

Wow. I did alot of research on OD pedals before settling on the Barber DD. There's a ton of great pedals out there, but this one felt like mine.
Why? Well, because I mainly play a big ol' hollowbody Gretsch, and I didn't shell out 2 grand to have my nice woody tone sucked out every time I wanted a good lead boost.

This box delivers in every way. It is sooooo transparent, that it still will sound like your guitar and clear enough that you could play a nice jazz chord and still hear all the intervals, yet at the same time amazing sustain at a low drive setting. Hell, I keep the drive almost off and still get a ballsy boost where the notes really hold out.

Turn the drive up to 12 o'clock and you got Eddie Van Halen/Hendrix/Trower oozing out of the speakers. I s**t you not. The fat harmonics of the push/pull tone knob is a nice touch, very subtle and never woofy. Many pedals of this type of gain can get fizzy on you, but not this one.

I have been able to dial in just about any sound, from organic bluesey balls to cranked Fender-ish to AC/DC "Jailbreak" to full out singing, screamin, wailing sustain........and it still sounds like my guitar!!!! YES!!!!!!!

This pedal gets a 10, and I dont give anything a 10!!

David Barber has made the perfect overdrive pedal.

So far so good. Looks/feels pretty solid. Oh and I love the black...very elegant.

I emailed David Barber this morning and he wrote back within a few hours.
This guy is a class act all the way.

I play everything from Honky Tonk and Rockabilly to Hendrix/Trower/Cream/White Stripes blues rock, a little jazz and western swing here and there. I play 10-15 gigs a month and my gear sees plenty of use. I'm not some little pedal rat always chasing the flavor of the month.
I only use 4 effect pedals and this is one of them.

Oh, by the way, you cant beat the price on this. Under $150 new or find a used one on eBay.

I play a Gretsch Country Club, a taco Tele and a '79 Strat.

Finally I found the drive pedal. I am so happy!!!

Easy, easy and easy.
Turn on you pedal and amp and play your guitar. No secret!
Natural drive!!!

I use a Gibson LP Standard PLus and a Fender Telecaster deluxe.
It is not noisy, even the drive at 12 o??clock.
I am using the DD and LTD. Both have made me happy.
I use the DD to "hard" drive, almost a distortion. Even with the drive bottom at 12 o??clock, I can hear every note in the chord. It is amazing! I have tried a lot of drive pedals before to buy the DD, but i was never impressed with any of them. Today I can say I am happy.
I??ve tried Fulltone (OCD, GT500, etc...) but Fulltone wasnt made for me. A lot of people adore this pedal, but I couldnt love it.

My LP sounds as weel as my Tele. Of course, there are a lot of differences, but I dont need to alter the bottoms of DD every time I plug them.

My setup is simple - Fender Blues Deluxe AMP + Dunlop Classic + DD Barber + LTD Barber + CS 9 chorus + MXR MicroAMP - Guitars LP Plus and Tele deluxe.



I dont need any more. I am quite happy.

I can depend on it. It seems very solid. Seems very reliable.

I havent called for them yet.

I have been playing for over 15 years and today I can say: "Finally I found the DRIVE pedal".
If you love the sound of your guitar and of your amp, buy the Barber drive pedal. It won??t alter your sound.

I was using the Shredmaster and Drivemaster of Marshall, good pedals, but I wasnt quite content, I was needing more "naturalness". When I tried the DD and the LTD I was surprised with the quality of them.

If I was stolen I would buy it again. No doubt.

Much like all the other overdrive pedals on the market, this one is also very easy to use. Three knobs, volume, tone, and drive. The tone knob has a pull option for added versitility.

After trying literally tons of overdrive pedals, I have finally found the perfect pedal for my amp. To give you a little bit of background, I play am in a punk influenced rock and roll band playing with a gibson les paul standard through a marshall 800 2203 with a marshall AX cab. The tone of those combined is perfect for me.

I purchased a blackheart BH5WHS boutique tube amp recently that sounds amazing turned up to 10. But at low volumes it does not breakup due to it not having a master volume. I have been looking for a pedal to give me that early breakup tone without coloring the amps sound. This is a very difficult task.

It seems like every overdrive pedal out there tries to emulate the tubescreamer. I DO NOT LIKE THAT TONE. Too midrangy and muffled for me. It makes speaker cabinets sound like they are enclosed in a cardboard box. I have tried other boutique pedals like the fulltone, voodoo lab, BBE, radial, and much more.

The Barber Direct Drive was the only pedal that did exactly what I wanted. It turned my Blackheart into my marshall stack. It can do many other sounds as well if you dial it into your likings.

I LOVE IT!

Its still new, but it hasnt failed me thus far.

Simple and straightforward, nothing fancy going on here. The pedal is nicely voiced and really no matter where you set the knobs there are no bad tones to be found - never gets too harsh or too dark.

This pedal sounds fantastic. I mainly use a USA G&L Legacy into a modded Fender Deluxe Reverb RI or Peavey Classic 20. It has a very usable range of gain that can take you from a tubescreamer type tone at the low range to a full on rock distortion at the higher settings. The sound is full bodied and very balanced, and it provides tons of singing sustain which is great for lead tones. I also have a Fulltone OCD v3 - while the Fulltone is a bit more dynamically responsive and is more open, the Direct Drive has a sweeter tone. If I had to pick one it would be the Direct Drive. At low volumes it can sometimes be a just bit too compressed but once you get the powertubes pushed towards a clip at high volumes it really sounds flawless. There are Gilmour and Eric Johnson tones in here - tons of sustain, really smooth.

It can be a bit noisy. That's really my only complaint.

I've had it for a couple years now. No problems so far and don't expect any, but it doesn't quite seem Boss impervious (but it sounds a lot better!)

Haven't had to deal with them

I play classic rock, blues, jazz, and some fusion. I like tones such as Robben Ford, SRV, Eric Johnson, and Joe Bonamassa - "singing" tones with lots of sustain. This pedal delivers. Frankly, it is a steal at $120. Compared to a TS9, which is not much cheaper, you get true bypass and a wider range of tones. It can do anything a screamer can and much more. While I haven't played everything, this the best dirt pedal I have tried. When I've got my Deluxe cranked up this pedal really delivers. Just wish it was a bit quieter, but I can live with it.

There are cheaper options out there, sure, but I think this pedal is a better value. It blows the standard fare Boss/Digitech/Ibanez pedals you find at Guitar Center out of the water. Boss distortions/overdrives subtract from your tone - this pedal adds to it.

Three knobs- one has 'pull' function. It doesn't get much easier than this.

If I rated this in it's dollar range, as compared to other products of similar value, it would be a definite '10'. I am actually going to rate this as compared to other high-end stuff that I am familiar with.
First off, I have been playing for about 25 years. I have done recording, touring, etc... I have 'settled down' since those days, but I still play regularly.
I am running this pedal into a class-A tube combo. This pedal smokes the overdrive on my particular amp. I use it in conjuction with an older 'pre-EQ' two channel Tone Pump, which is an awesome pedal in its own right. The Direct Drive differs from the Tone Pump in that the Direct Drive has more of a 'Marshally' type grind, where the TP has more of a boutique vibe. There are three ways I use the Direct Drive. 1- With the drive set around 9-10 o'clock, it actually has the most appealing 'TS808' groove of any pedal I have ever owned. The pedal is worth getting just because of this. 2- Around 12 o'clock it is a very good Marshall rythym 3- At 3 o'clock it really burns with a nice rich, saturated lead tone. I am continually moving the drive around with my foot as we play different songs, but it is well worth it. It is not noisy for a distortion pedal. It feels far more natural than any "Boss" type pedal, and is well worth the money. It does not clean-up as well as some other boutique stuff I have, but for what it does, it is a keeper. The TP would still be my 'desert island' pedal if I had to make a choice. Anyone looking for either a TS808 or a 'Marshall in a box' should at least check this out. I believe this pedal will make Dave Barber a rich man.

I own three Barber pedals (I also own an ancient single-channel Burn Unit). The Burn Unit did lose a connection (loose solder joint) a few years back, but I fixed it in no time. These pedals are well-made.

I have e-mailed Mr. Barber a time or two, and he has always e-mailed me back personnally.
Try that with some of these other jokers.

Best value on the market as far as overdrives are concerned. Check out the video demo's (they have sound too!) at www.musictoyz.com for some well-done sound files. Barber really knows what he is doing, and does it well.

Simple to use. Volume, tone and gain knobs. The tone knob can be pulled up for a different sound. To access the battery four screws must be removed from the bottom of the pedal. If you shake the pedal you can hear the battery move. No big deal though, I keep this pedal on my pedal board with velcro using the power supply on the board.

I use this amp in front of a Marshall 100 watt all tube TSL112 combo amp and matching cabinet to give the amp more growl. It does the job well! I pre-fer the sound with the tone knob pulled up and turned almost all the way to the right. I turn the gain up just slightly about three (there are no numbers on the pedal). This thing gives the lead channel on my amp a kick in the ass! I am able to get the modern gain tones from my amp using this pedal. The pedal does not add any noise and when switched off does not suck the tone dry. This is a great OD pedal.

So far no problems!

never delt with them

Does a great job adding more growl to my tube amp! And the price was great.

Very straight forward and highly effective -- the only complaint is the push-pull tone control used to add extra harmonics/edge to the drive: it is easy to push this down (off) inadvertently when you might otherwise want it up (on).

Les Paul (loaded with SD JB/Jazz) or Strat (loaded with Van Zandt Blues) >> Boss TU-2 >> Direct Drive >> Boss Metal Zone (only when used in combo with a dirty amp AND the Direct Drive!!!) >> Xotic RC Booster >> Fulltone ChoralFlange >> A/B >> Deluxe Reverb RI and Torres Engineering Boogie Mite (with EH Holy Grail).

The Direct Drive is just a fantastic overdrive pedal. With the Deluxe set for a base low-volume clean tone, it provides an effective, transparent overdrive tone (especially with humbuckers) -- very useful when you have only one amp/channel and need a clean base tone. Against a plexi-style tube amp with overdriven power tubes, it just totally rocks! A wide array of possibilities, all the way from a relatively clean boost to huge amounts of gain. Personally, I keep the tone pot pulled out for the added harmonics. It adds edge and articulation to the sound - excellent.

Three years of gigging -- not a single problem.

Never had to contact Barber.

This is a follow-on review from almost three years ago. Eighteen years of playing guitar. I've been playing continuously in a band/gigging for the past three years and have played in other bands prior to that. I just have to put in another plug for this pedal. Other than my TU-2 and Metal Zone, it's the only one that has stayed on my board through all of my obsessive searches for improved gear/tone. (OK, all that searching has led to the need for additional practice and live experience more than the need for gear, but you aren't a real guitar player unless you are a gear freak, right???) The MZ stays just because it is tolerable when used WITH the Direct Drive and nothing else I have found quite sounds like it... I've tried and ditched a Fulltone Full-Drive, a Maxon TS-9 copy, and an Xotic AC Booster -- the Direct Drive smokes them all and is less expensive than all of them. If you are playing a tube amp, I don't think you could possibly go wrong with the Direct Drive. It's a must have.

This pedal strikes a nice balance between simplicity and adequate tweakability. Volume, tone, drive (I have no need for cutesy or trendy names for controls... I'm generally confused enough already); everything is clearly labeled with ALL CAPS and nice big lettering. No time wasted trying to remember which jack is IN and which is OUT, even if I'm crosseyed-drunk at a raucous punk rock show. Love the push-pull tone control.

Absolutely astonishing. No, seriously.

I play a Soldano HR50 which I keep super-loud and mildly saturated for a nice "clean" (ha!) sound. Soldanos are known for their high-gain clarity but I personally don't like that Jerry Cantrell buzz. With the Barber and a sweet compressor (currently the little green Guyatone, which shall be mourned as soon as I accidentally stomp it to oblivion) I can get the heavy roar I am addicted to. Fantastic with both single-coil and humbucking pickups. The meaning of the term "transparency" became thoroughly apparent to me as soon as I A-B'd it with my Maxon SD-9. (Damn, I used to love that poor, now-neglected SD-9.)

When I run this pedal through my '65 Univox it gets that velvety sound that, especially when run through a single-coil neck pickup, makes my eyes get all misty.

I now control the gain almost exclusively with my guitar's volume knob - a concept I would've previously considered LAUGHABLE.

I imagine I could drop this thing into a tube sock and out-street-fight a bronze statue with it. Opened it up to put in a battery; the quality of the components and ruggedness of design were instantly apparent. I've never seen such thick leads on electronic parts! The pedal's guts look like a work of art. The switch could withstand any stomp-happy crack unicorn.

I'll take everyone's word for it. Have been tempted to call and say THANKS but anyone who's making products this good is liable to have a phone that never stops ringing anyway.

I play rock, metal, thrash, speed, punk, crossover, blues, funk, jazz, surf, rockabilly. I love "vintage" and "classic" tones; I love a good Fender chime as much as a hot-rodded Marshall crunch. I can't stand digital effects or amp-modeling! I will always love this pedal and will probably keep buying Barber electonics products until I've collected them all. I don't see how other companies have the gall to charge twice as much for inferior products. I've hardly ever felt my money was so well-spent.

Been useing the Barber pedals for over 5 years now. I have had the older DD's and the Blue model SS, and the newer black models. I found for me the very first DD with the green LED's are the king of the open plexi tones from god. I own 3 now and they all sound just a twinge different from one another.

I have run them in just about every boutique amp on the market with great success. Even my old blackface Fender sound great with the DD. I like to run a amp with just a small bit of crunch, then take it over the top with the DD for my lead work. Most setting for me are level at 11 oclock, tone at 2 oclock and gain at 4 oclock. I dont use many effects so I cant really say how it works with whatever, but for a Overdrive it is just better then any I have tried.

I still have my very first one, thats 5 years of stomping on it, and it still is in great shape. I have owned over 7 Barber pedals now, and all were awesome built. I am collecting the older green LED models now, as I really feel they sound better for what I play.

Only talked a few times years ago, dont really have much to ask, as the pedal does all the talking.

I play, Rock, Blues, & Jazz, and this pedal handles all of it with ease. I just love when I meet a new player, and he just loves his OD pedal, until he trys mine..thats all it takes he's hooked.
I work at a music store, and just did a pedal shoot out on a 4-10 tweed amp..Klon, reverend, Analogman, Keeley, Ibanez TS808, Maxon808, RT66, Yamaha OD, Buffalo fuzz, Brooklyn, Greenline, and the Barber Direct drive...the barber killed them all, on TONE, drive, and feel...

This pedal is extremely easy to use - Three knobs: Volume, tone and drive. The tone pot is push pull. When you pull up on it, it sounds slightly bigger. It's supposed to sound more modern, which I agree with. It accentuates certain harmonics which make it sound slightly fuller. VERY SLIGHTLY though. There is hardly a difference when this pot is pulled. There are also knobs inside the enclosure for fine tuning - Bass and prescence. Very easy to access with a screwdriver.

This thing really does sound fantastic. It's a pretty responsive box and cleans up fairly well with your guitar's volume knob. The clarity is OUTSTANDING, far better than any Boss overdrive. It's really quite stunning how pristine this thing is. It is true bypass so it doesn't color your tone and makes very little noise (as little noise as an overdrive could ever make). I usually use it with the drive all the way up. You can't really get a whole lot of drive with this thing. If you want SERIOUS crunch, go with something else. This thing will have you covered for slight overdrive to medium distortion, but don't expect anything else; it's not made for that. People have commented on my excellent tone; other guitarists and well as recording engineers.

You have to be trying in order to break this thing. Even then, it would be a challenge. SUPER hard metal chasis, USA made components, Alpha pots; everything is top of the line. And of course, it's handmade in the USA and signed and dated by the builder. I've never seen a pedal built better than this thing. I've gigged and gigged with this thing and never had any problems. But of course, I take care of it and don't jump off a 4 foot amp onto it or smash my guitar into it.

I've never had to contact Barber and probably never will unless it's to tell them how awesome the Direct Drive is.

I use a Les Paul with a DiMarzio Fred in the bridge, DiMarzio PAF in the neck and global coil splitting. The LP goes into a Dunlop standard wah then into the Barber, then into an original USA '93 Blues DeVille 2x12 (not to be confused with the modern Hot Rod DeVilles). I use the Barber instead of the drive channel on my amp. The Barber has more clarity and is more articulate; better dynamic response. It has as much or a little more drive. I wish it had more drive, that's my only complaint. I was under the impression that it would give a cranked up Marshally tone, which it does not really do. If someone stole it, God help them. They'd have really killer tone until I shot them. Anyway, this is the epitome of a 10 rating pedal. It's built well, and sounds even better. Real, real nice.

I picked this up for seventy bucks used from a friend of mine.3 knobs and an on/off switch.Never seen the manual for this thing,but it is one the earlier versions without the internal trim pots.The box is flat,black and handpainted,kinda like I like them.Got a push/pull tone control which fattens up the lower mids some,and engages a little more gain.So simple to operate,that even I can.

Is it noisy? No,not really.But is isnt an extreme gain machine.It is ana overdrive pedal that will step up into some pretty nice gain ranges,and sound like a fine copy of a tube amp getting hot and messin' it's britches.I like it.I use this thing with a marshall preamp,and a boogie preamp,thru a tc into an old Boogie Simulcast 395,and from that to a 4x12 marshall cab w/vintage 30's.Sometimes use a couple of Bogner cubes,depending on the venue.Strats,Teles,Prs,Les Pauls mainly.One of my strats have kinmans,one has texas specials,w/the humbucker in the bridge,the other guitars are loaded with Fralins.They all sound different,and this pedals lets those differences come thru.W/the Tex Specials strat,i pop up the tone knob,taking the tone to about 3 o clock,back the drive down to about seven o clock,Stevie Ray time,& some pretty convincing Jimi tones.Play w/the thing ,there are huge tones available.Some even remind of some Robben Ford dumble tones.It ain't no guv'nr thank the Lord,but with a small number of different settings and a couple of guitars,you can get an amazing array of tones from dark to bright,hot to mellow,and a lot of inbetweens.Is that a word ???If you like Steve Morse,you can even roll out some of his tones damn easy.Good fresh strings help also,but this is a bad little box.Not good for every tone in the world,but mighty fine never the less.Back off the gtr vol,it cleans up.Who woulda figured this kind of sound for so cheap.By the way,Steely Dan guitar sounds are super ez with this baby,I like it.Just a nice overdrive pedal,period.

I've always got other things in the gig bag,but yeah,i think it is reliable.Had it a couple of years,nary a hiccup.

never had a reason to deal with them.

Playing way too long,and play the entire gamut of music,with 3different bands,and a bunch of hired sideman things.Way too much gear for any sane person,it just kinda accumulates.I like the way this thing sounds period,and i've checked it against a lot of other products.It won't do everything,but it will cover a lot of ground,and i prefer it over a lot of other tube driven boxes.More controlled,more refined,more pro sound. Yes i would replace it ,especially at this price point.It does help me make music,take it in the studio,and then listen to playback with neutral people around you,see what they say.It is not the end of all to be all,but it is a very good pedal.You'll need something else to take you to death distortion,but this will get you to that before place easily.once again,i'll just say,I like it

Very easy to use, level,drive, tone w/ pull fat switch. Internal bass and presence trimmers.

Ok, I've been spoiled and I have a very good ear. Being an audiophile and doing numerous mods to both music and audio amps (mainly tube) my ear has really developed over the years. This pedal sounds solid state. I'm comparing to my Vox Big Ben overdrive pedal that I use through my Allen Accomplice amp. The DD sounds overly compressed and too "polished" at anything above 10 on the drive level. There's no "soul" to the sound and it has a plastic popping that's indictive to most TS style circuits. Its does have a decent feel to it though in comparison to other solid state pedals...tube like squash to the sound. One of the main reasons that solid state will never sound like tubes is something called dielectric noise. Tubes don't have this noise since the electron flow is in a vaccum. IC chips color the sound in a hard plastic way because it is encased in plastic and it does effect the resonance. EMG pickups are a prime example of this...the plastic resonates and then the opamps magnify this sound even more. I can tell EMG pickups from a mile away due to this resonance.

In all fairness, in its price range it is a decent sounding pedal but I just can't stand listening to the plastic coloration in the sound. Its also way too polished sounding, i need a bit more balls to my sound.

Spend the extra money and get a Big Ben...I had a Chandler tube driver that cost me $450 used and the Big Ben was very close to the sound. I sold the Chandler for a nice profit and kept the Big Ben.

Barber products are built well, I have a tone press compressor that I love.

I emailed them a while back with questions and never heard back from them.

I hate to crap on this pedal but its just my opinion. If you are used to using solid state overdrive / distortion pedals like stock Boss', Maxon, Tube Screamers, etc. this pedal will be your Holy Grail since it readily out performs those pedals. At its price point though, its a decent pedal. I've tried numerous pedals, stock and modified. I also have a Fuchs amp so I am a bit spoiled in great tube tone. I use pedals with my Allen amp and so far nothing has outperformed my Vox Big Ben.

The DD is very easy to use- particularly considering how versitile it is. Getting good sounds out of it is really about as simple as plugging in and turning on your amp. However, to experiement with all of the stock tone shaping capabilities you need to take off the back cover and play with the internal trim pots- WELL worth the effort, but requires the slightest bit of extra committment from the user.

I play a Tele (american standard) through a Rivera Quiana. The guitar and amp are really beautiful together. The amp overdrives beautifully, so in many ways, I had no need to the Direct Drive. But he DD works so well with this guitar/amp combo. It gives me a way bigger sound than you expect out of a Tele- very good bass response, it respects the twang of the tele, and most impressively, chords sound incredible. You hear every single note, rather than 2 notes and mud you get with most OD or Distortion boxes. The pedal does introduce some noise but being a tele player, I know how to live with that. I run my signal through about 8 other pedals and the DD interacts really nicely with all of them. It becomes a particularly beautiful beast when running the DD with my Homebrew Germacide multi-frequency booster.

I have 100% confidence in this pedal. No one questions Barber build quality.

From reading the Barber user forums, he seems very committed to his customers but I have no first hand experience to form an opinion.

I play orignal rock. Our songs run the gammut from lo-fi punk influences to the Police, Hendrix and the Who, to Wilco and Radiohead. When I need grit, the DD gives it to me. When I need clearly articulated arpegiations, I roll the volume back and it cleans up beautifully, when I need massive chords a la Pete Townshend, I drop the hammer on my strings and it gives me a nice, tight response. If I need to run it through 3 delays, 2 trems a phaser, and an open wah, it still sounds rich and full. This is a great pedal for my purposes. I'm amazed at how versatile it can make a stock Tele with single coils. The DD is a rare combination of user-friendly, tone-friendly, other-pedal-friendly, and pocket friendly pedal. To me, the Direct Drive is essential.

Simple. The pull-tone knob is a great addition, too.

I do not give tens for sound quality, ever. I don't like distortion/overdrive pedals, either. I never use them in the studio and I only use them live out of laziness because it's a lot easier to step on a couple boxes in a live situation in order to change your sound, especially if you play in a variety of bands, like I do. Stompbox distortion has its place for specific sounds, but for general rock and roll, I like my AC30 to be cranked. I've tried a couple of overdrives (out of those, one of the best was the crowther hotcake, but they're pretty expensive), but settled on the Direct Drive because the price was great and I had heard wonderful things about it. And, as it turns out, the DD stays right there with the Hotcake and honestly, this pedal has changed my opinion of stompboxes. I don't care if I sound like SRV or anything like that, which is part of the reason I didn't want a Tube Screamer. I sold my Rat because it just was not very refined. I have a Toadworks Death Rattle II which is great for specific sounds, but still not a great straight ahead rock n' roll pedal. The direct drive, however, is truly amazing. It does sound better than Dave Barber claims (as the reviewer said below). Rich harmonics, distortion from almost clean boost to thick sustaining leads (the knob never reaches a point where the distortion is so muddy you can't use it). The tone knob seems to do more than just alter the high-end in the pedal. It is very sensitive and allows you to get many different OD and distortion tones out of it. The fat harmonics switch (which, since I use this as my straight ahead rock pedal), is fantastic. It really opens my Telecaster up and sings with harmonics that actually make me feel like using a pedal isn't too much of a compromise to cranking my Vox. Cranking the overdrive and then fueling the pedal with the boost function from the Death Rattle really makes this thing sound think, but it never, even for a second, loses clarity (though I've only used it with single coils). Sell your tube screamer for the ridiculous prices that they go for on ebay and buy one or two of these things. I'm considering getting rid of my death rattle and buying a Barber LTD to go with my direct drive. I'm very impressed with this pedal. Wish I could afford the Burn Unit or Tone Pump. I bet they're amazing, too.

Everything seems great except I'm a little nervous about my tone knob. It turns just a little to easily (like if my cable brushes over it while I'm moving around on stage) and I'm worried that it's a little loose. Honestly though, this is a minor complaint. I have the death rattle II as a backup (though an unworthy backup) but I'm not really concerned. Tubes go out. Stompboxes shouldn't unless something really bad happens (like a beer spill).

And if that tone knob ever did mess up, I'm sure the guys at Barber would fix it ASAP. The pride they take in their work means that when one of their products messes up, they will fix it, not just because they have to because of the warranty, but because they really do want every single one of their pedals to be top notch quality. In addition, they keep their prices on this thing really low, especially considering how well-made and good-sounding it is.

I play all things rock. I've gone through some pedals and tried some others and I'm just amazed at the DD. It gets a wide variety of usable tones out of an extremely simple setup. The sound is so refined I actually feel like it's fused with my Vox. But, that's not to say it can't scream or wail. There's plenty of aggressiveness in this pedal. But it's kind of like a precision guided two-thousand pound bomb. It packs a huge punch, but it's accurate, smooth, and never misses it's target. Nothing that you don't want, everything that you do. Beautiful.

I can't believe I just wrote a glowing review. Seriously, get this pedal if you play any form of rock.

simple to use as there is not a bad sound any where the knobs are set

this sounds better than dave and cru claim.no noise,tube sound is there.you can use it with everything from j-station,gnx-2,boogie amp,princeton chorus,anything!

i have a tone pump,ltd.and this new style direct drive and have never had any problems with them,best made stuff i have ever seen or used.

when you call and ask questions MR Barber answers the phone what more could you ask for,

i play all types of music and could not see any need to leave this home as they are so usable.I have been playing for 42 years and have been thru all the equipment you guys and girls have and this is as close as i have gotten and easiest to the sound i hear in my head!these could easily be in the 200 to 300 dollar price range.i have spent a lot more and got a lot less.the drive range from lowest setting to 11 o clock range is nothing short of magical,both with tone knob up or down.drive levels from there up are el34s with perfect bottom.i can just hear all the tube snobs about now but i have to show people all the time that BARBER,GNX2.and 2 tech power engines is what they are hearing.thanks to all the folks at barber.

Pretty easy to use, controls are straight forward and very effective.
True Bypass. Excellent build quality (You could eat off the board - but don't).

I've only had the unit for about one week and am primarily writing this review to comment on the service that I recieved from Dave Barber which was excellent but more on that later. Since I'm here, my current signal chain is: Strat > Teese Picture Wah > Barber Tone Press > Keeley Modded TS808 reissue > Barber Direct Drive > Boss MIJ CE-2 Chorus > Dr. Z Maz Jr. 1x12 NR. This pedal fits in well and is very similar to the ts808 but different enough to keep things interesting. One thing that impresses me with this pedal is how useful the range of the controls are and the Mid boost on the tone knob is excellent. The DD is very articulate but still smooth. You can do a clean boost with it but there is also a ton of gain available if you need that. I think that this pedal is a great choice as a tube screamer type overdrive that will actually go into gain zones that a TS can't. It is also an outstanding value. I've tried stock Ibanez ts9, Ts9 w/ analogman mod, Fulltone fulldrive II Keeley ts 808 and the Direct Drive. I'd rate this pedal second out of the bunch behind my Keeley 808. The keeley doesn't sound better necessarily but the two do have a slightly different voice and I think that I've just gotten use to the 808 to the point where I would not want to go without it. The Keeley however costs 2.5 times as much and is not quite as versatile. Both are well made and both companies provide outstanding service.

Have not had it long enough to comment.

Excellent in every aspect. I had a problem with my pedal when I got it home from the store. When I would switch it on sometimes I'd have a very weak signal and other times it would work as expected. Contacted Barber and spoke to Dave. He speculated that it may be a problem with the switch. Dave explained that although it was very, very rare they have had a few switches that they have had to replace. I think he said that the frequency of a bad switch was like 1 in 1000. Long story short, I shipped the pedal to Dave and he recieved it the next day (I live in the same state). After recieving it Dave ran it through the paces and then called me and explained that he could not find a problem with it and that it was working fine. we talked for a bit and I explained that I had the pedal alone with several different cables and batteries and then tried other pedals with the same cables and could not attribute the intermittent problems I was having to anything else in the chain. It was just my luck to have some sort of gremlin that would only reveal itself to me. Kind of like when your car is making a funny noise until you bring it to the mechanic and then it shuts up. Any way, Dave went ahead and replaced the switch anyway, just to be safe, and then went through and touched up the solder points on the board for me. I recieved the pedal back the next day and everything is working great. The moral of this story? You have nothing to worry about should you need service from Barber Electronics. Dave gave me the impression that he understands that top notch service is as important as the quality of the product and the price. The Barber Direct Drive gets high marks in all three areas.

I play primarily Blues and classic (60's 70's some 80's) Rock. I'm 38 and started playing when I was about 8. I have been in and out of playing for most of my life but for the past five years have been playing pretty much everyday for 1 or more hours /day.

Right now I'm trying to put together a comprehensive pedal board and am not sure that I will keep this pedal only because it is so similar to my 808. For my needs and considering my bank account I may be better served if I replaced the Direct Drive with a Fuzz. That said, if I were gigging I would deffinately keep this pedal as a backup to my Keeley 808. If I were shopping for my first overdrive or was an overdrive junky who just liked to have alot of different overdrive options at their disposal, I would strongly suggest giving this pedal a go. I'd like to give a rating of 9.5 here but since I can't.

Very easy to get a great range of sounds. Like a Tube Screamer without the mud. The internal trim pot for bass response is okay, but I turned it all the way up. It never sounds muddy, but turning the pot counter-clockwise just seems to cut bass. Pulling the middle pot is a "fat" switch, and I leave it pulled out. There is a short but useful manual, but you don't need it - the pedal's controls are self-explanatory. Still, you have to mess with it and your particular amp to get a great sound. But, really, isn't the messing around with it half the fun?

Sounds equally good with humbuckers or single-coils. Without a doubt the best stompbox I've ever owned, and the best I've ever heard outside of a tube-powered unit costing four times as much. Sounds really great, smooth with the right amount of graininess with my Les Paul, and clean-yet-dirty with my Telecaster. None of that compressed, cheesy, midrange-bump stuff is in this pedal. I run this into my late-60's 20-watt Gibson Falcon, which has a Celestion Greenback, new tubes and a recent cap job. I probably should have done some research and bought the LTD (same thing but lower gain) from Barber instead of this - this has WAY more gain than I'll ever use - but I love it anyway.

Seems to be built like a tank. I wouldn't even think of a backup, but I haven't had it long, either.

They're super nice, knowledgeable, and FAST - I orderd mine on Tuesday and received it on Friday!

I've messed around with dozens of distortion boxes and owned a Tube Screamer which I modded with the correct chip and a great sounding Boss OD-3, among others. I've played through an Expandora, Vox Valvetone, Marshall pedals, Ross pedals, Big Muff, and so on. The only thing I've ever played through that equaled this was a $400 Budda ZenMan. Take the extra $300 and buy a low wattage, weird old amp (I got my Gibson Falcon for $150), crank your guitar through this pedal and be amazed. This is perfect for the old rock and blues that I usually do, and can easily handle much heavier stuff too. Just buy one.

Very easy to get a great sound, love the simplicity. Mine is the new version with the OTT graphics ;-) and the bass trim pot. Haven't tried any internal adjustments yet as I'm thoroughly happy with the sounds I'm getting straight out of the box.

Using with Fender Stratocaster Elite (1983) with Kinman Woodstock plus pups, Barber Tone Press, Direct Drive to Roland Bolt 60 valve amp (2 6L6's). The sound is excellent, the Bolt has a great clean channel and with the DD I can get that beautiful full bluesy breakup sound I've been after. With the tone pulled I can get that smooth Jimi lead sound!! at last! Kick in the Tone Press with a touch of compression and mostly clean boost and lookout! Sustain forever!!

Very well made, solid. Barber makes quality pedals, nuf said.

Haven't had to use them, web site is well maintained and up to date.

This is a good match for the styles of music I play, blues, rock, fusion, progressive stuff. I live in Australia and would like to also mention how good the service was from Indoor Storm, Eddie is one of the best people I've ever dealt with for customer service!!. It's always difficult making a purchase like this when you live in another country, but Eddie made this purchase painless. So if you are like me and don't know who can purchase this pedal or other stuff from, I would thoroughly recommend Indoor Storm!! Also, congratulations to Harmony Central for making these user reviews available, would never have known about Barber Electronics if I hadn't read all the reviews posted here. It sure helps to get an overall feel for how good some of this gear really is. Yep, I like my Barber DD alot!! Even at OZZie dollar prices this pedal is terrific value. I don't like to give out 10's too freely but this is as good as it gets.

Anyone steals my gear WATCHOUT!!!! I'm gonna get ya when ya least expect it!!

The Direct Drive is a simple unit that any monkey could use?partly due to the fact that it sounds good on any setting. Simple controls, volume, tone (pull for fat harmonics) and drive. BUT?having opened mine on day one, I also found that mine contains a bass trimpot inside on the PCB. I spoke with David Barber about this, and he told me that mine is actually a collectable transition period unit incorporating the new innards with the old casing?sweet as a nut!!! Very simple to dial in a really great overdrive sound and between the tone pot and the bass trimpot I can tailor my EQ to perfection.

The direct drive is in a different league to the mass produced drive boxes (some of which are indeed great pedals in their own right). This is right up there with the best of the boutique drives. The quality is audible immediately with a good guitar and valve amp. It is a much more natural sounding overdrive, a very broad sound that acts like a drive channel on your amp rather than a pedal. Also, the true bypass is exceptional.
I am using the ?69 and ?72 thinline telecasters with a Vox AC30/tb, and the direct drive works better than any other overdrive I have tried with them, and I?ve tried them all!!!

I replaced my old TS-9 with the DD and now I use the tubescreamer for my lead boost. This works really really well due to the slight bump in the mids to make lead passages stand proud in the mix. The TS-9 doesn?t come close to the DD for general overdrive use though?as I said, different league!!! But the mix of the two for leads is a match made in heaven, a really beautiful texture that sits exactly where you want it in a live performance and studio mix.

I usually use my DD in fat harmonics mode with drive at about 12 or 1 o?clock?tone and volume are variable depending on the acoustics of the room.

I like to use the middle toggle position of my teles for my cleans and clean breakup sound (for which I use the Boss BD-2 with volume high and drive down to crank my tubes into jangley cleanish breakup)?BUT?I like to use the bridge position for full rhythm overdrive sounds, so the bass trimpot inside allows me to dial in enough bottom end so there is no dropout of bottom end EQ when I go back into the bridge position and hit the DD. It works like a dream, full punchy drive and still never muddy when used in the middle and neck positions?just even bigger and creamy as hell!!! Jesus I love this pedal!!! Best addition to my setup since the ac30.

Made to the highest standards. Built like a tank. No problems at all here!!! Inside is a work of art!!! I just love that famous JRC heart in there!!!

I think the service would be really good if you needed it, due to the way that David Barber himself will talk to you so readily. I hope I don?t have to find out if they can fix problems though!!!

A gem to have in your arsenal. Even if you have the big boutique names on your board it is well worth having a look at this. It is better than the fulltone stuff in my opinion, so if you?re a fulldrive user just have a gander at this. OF COURSE?I only have experience of the unit with the bass trimpot inside, so pick up one of the newer ones if you like what you hear in my review.
The pedal looks great, sounds amazing, has true bypass, tough as a house and all at that price ?what else is there??? Blows the competition out of the water. Try it yourself!!!

It's very easy to get a good sound out of it and very hard to get a bad sound. Every sound is completely useable. Plus, it comes with a manual of suggested settings.

I play an american strat with a jbjr in the bridge and a '72 custom tele reisue with a humbucker in the neck. They both go into a board consisting a vox way, EVH Phase 90, Boss CE-2 Chorus, TU-2 Tuner, and a DD-20 delay in the loop of my Marshall DSL 401 with mullaird tubes and a vintage 30 speaker.

I love the sound of my amp and the sound of my guitars, and it was important to me to preserve as much of that sound as possible. Although, there may be slight coloration, you'll never be wondering what your guitar your playing. The Direct Drive, a strat sounds like a strat and a humbucker like a humbucker, unlike some overdrives which sound like the your playing through the overdrive. Playing through the direct drive sounds, and feels like plugging straight in to a cranked tube amp. Warm, grit, sustain, touch responsive, very nice, all of that's here.

I set mine up this way; Volume 3:00, Tone maxed with the push pull in the up position, Drive 7:30-8:00. It's almost like a clean boost with just a little more oomph. When playing my clean channel on my amp with this on, it gives me a little more on the edge type blues tone, very, very musical sounding, and ballsy. When playing rythm on my drive channel of the amp, which is set at about 1:00 (on the amp)I kick on the Direct drive, and I get a great singing violin like sustainy lead tone that's also great for heavier chunky power chords as well. Like all effects that I use, I use them in moderation. Just adding to my tone without overtaking it. And this is a tremendous addition. It takes my tone and makes it nicer and more "real" sounding. Cranking up the gain gets you into more marshally heavy overdrive territory. I can dial it in to sound close to my amp, so if the amp ever poops out, I crank up the Direct drive and keep going. If your using a single channel amp, this would make a great second channel. It's very amp like in sound and touch responsiveness. A definite keeper.

I'm giving this a 10. Why? Because I've owned and used a fulltone fulldrive II, boss SD-1 (old, new, and modded), TS-9, TS-808, OD-9, OD-808, Tech 21 Double Drive, Analogman TS-9, Rats, Jekyll & Hyde, MXR Distortion, DOD 250 (grey model and yellow model), and a zoom pd-01, along with several other distortion boxes. All of these are good and usefull, and definetely get up there ratings. But the best sound wise to me is the barber. My second and third favorite is the Zoom PD-01 and Maxon OD-9, great for pushing an amp and really thickening up a strat, and the least expensive of the others I mentioned, but it lacks the musical mojo that the barber produces and I hate the ts-9 style switch on the maxon. So, I have no problems at all giving this a 10. All of the pedals I mentioned excell as a either a full on heavy overdrive, a simple boost, or a light overdrive. The barber does all three and does them well.

This has got to be reliable. Open one of these up and compare it any thing you own. Anything!! Incredibly well built.

Sent them an e-mail asking them a ton of questions concerning many of their products and they steered me towards a happy purchase. Very good support. Right up there with Robert Keeley, Analogman, and Indyguitarist. Three builders I've worked with that are all great to deal with.

I've been playing for twenty years. I play Rock, Blues, and pop punk. I'm in a cover band and need to cover a lot of territory. I also play at times in blues type settings. Great match for all that. I like it's simplicity in use and I like that it doesn't sound like I'm using a pedal. Also, not much added noise when using with other pedals or driven amps. And the price? C'mon what else are you going to get that close to perfection? Build quality, true bypass switching, excellent customer service, and tone for days, all under $100? Best bang for the buck, hands down.

Typical tubesreamer set up, volume, tone , gain and has added feature of pull tone pot for richer harmonics. Barbers website has tweaks so one can hone in the sound of the pedal. Got this pedal in a trade deal. Downloaded the manual, has some useful info on settings to get you started.

I use pedals that sound like a tube amp at full gain, first sign of fizz, flab, or kazoo like tones and they are off my board. I was using a Keeley modded TS-9 and a real tube 901 to get higher gain tones from a tube amp SET CLEAN. I tried the set the amp at near breakup and use the volume knob on the guitar and pedals to hit the preamp tubes harder, which gives a powerful tone BUT where did my shimmery clean tone go? For most venues I play I have to keep the volume down but still have tone and that is clean tone and overdriven tones and boosted tones for leads. The Barber Direct drive sounds like (or I should say a pinch better) than my amp cranked and I can lay the barber on a clean amp and I don't need any amp overdrive for it to work.

Dave Barber built it, the guy posts on a forum that I frequent and I'm sure he would make my pedal right if something was wrong. And as I said before he has tweaks on his website (I did the "open air tweak" and added a little more high end.

what I already said

I play rock thru a Dr Z MAZ 18 Jr w/2-10's and a Blues Jr.
I like to set my amp clean, my pedals shift the amp into distortion.
I run my guitar into a Teese RMC-2 -Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe - Fulltone 69 - Barber Direct Drive - Klon Centaur (set for clean boost) - Fulltone Supa Trem (which I set the mix knob down all the way and acts as a boost when not using trem) and the Dr Z or the Blues Jr. I have a boss DD-3 that I keep handy but normally dont use. Overall Rating For the Barber Direct Drive: I rate this pedal high because it works and cost's less than a lot of pedals that I bought that did'nt work. I can get my little Dr Z combo to scream like a plexi, or like a modded marshall, it works with the 69 fuzz to produce Hendrix sounds and set at lower gain it does some pretty good blues tones, and no fizzy decay, kazoo like tones, or farty bottom end, it is amplike.

Its been over a year now of every day use. I bought 3 of these pedals. And gave two away as gifts.

Been playing on the Pro level for 30 plus years, and I use a great amp, killer guitars, and only 1 pedal. I looked for ever to find the right OD pedal.....this is it. I like the LTD model as well for blues, and the SS model is better for Metal tones, but for my tastes this direct drive is the shit...I tend to like the Plexi style amps, and overdrive them into milkshake leads with articulation..this pedal does it great, and I can run it wide open on the gain, and it still is very musical. If there is a better OD pedal out there I have not found it, and I still try alot of em...Do yourself a big favour and buy one...out of all my stuff, this & a Demeter head stay by my side..

no trouble at all...many many gigs, and just works great..the battery last forever too...

Very easy to talk to. I bought 3 pedals of differnt types just to test them out..3 of the direct drives my friends bought do sound alittle different from each other, one had more balls, the other had more openess, and one was a tad bit under gained, but all sounded awesome just a little different..

In the future I want to buy his amp cause if his pedal is this killer, I bet the head is awesome. I really think this will be the last pedal I ever buy for OD...for $99 its just the best deal on earth..

3 knobs, push/pull pot, Hey ??

For the last 20 years I've tried so many ODs and this unit is by far the best sounding Overdrive I ever had. It can sound very similar to an old TS9 or 808 (gain and tone about 3). Pull the Tone-knob and you get a slight increase of mids. I am using this pedal with a Fender Deluxe Reverb, Twin Reverb and for clean boost with an Orange AD12. Didn't have any noise problems.

Looks very reliable. I would use it without a backup.

I don't know

I am playing Blues and Rock for 25 years now and I've owned so many OD pedals (Boss OD-1/SD-1, Banzai Fireball, Ibanez TS808/9/5, Vox Valvetone, Korg OVD-1, MEK TD-1/2). The sound of every OD is always a matter of taste. For me and my style of music the Barber DD is the best sounding and most usable OD I ever had. Much more Voulme than the standard Boss/Ibanez units.
The most thing I like about this pedal is that you can always hear the original sound of your guitar even with drive at max.
Maybe it would be nice to have a second swith instead of the push/pull pot but I am only using the Guitar-Volume so I don't care.
Gear: Strat/DD/TubeAmp (sometimes a little bit Delay after the DD)
...... bought my second DD yesterday ;)

I just had a suggestion for one of the previous reviewers who said this pedal was extremely noisy. Did you try it on another amp? I've been buying and selling pedals for a while now. I've seen tons of hate reviews on pedals for the amount of white noise they make. I've purchased pedals that were rated notorious for noise and worked fine on my tube amp without noise. I've had amps that the pedal sounded awesome on, but on another it would hiss and buzz. Another thing I realized was that another pedal from your current set up can cause the noise too. I've had some pedals leave a very low quiet fuzzy artifact after it which caused my other pedals to buzz and produce white noise and vice versa. So I was stuck with swapping pedals here and there for a while before I finished my dream pedal chain. You might have a kick ass setup that works fine without noise and such, but a new pedal can always be subject to problems fitting into your current setup. Some pedals are grounded and have noise filters, others dont. I have a tube amp where the distortion channel will pick up radio stations reguardless of my current power conditioner.

I noticed my new barber tonepress filters out that frequency. And since I leave it on all the time I don't have that noise issue. Again each pedal is built different and depends on the entire chain of effects.

Easy to use. Three knobs, Volume, Tone and Gain

I've used every overdrive pedal available. This overdrive is one of the best sounding overdrive pedals I've experienced. Very tube amp like. In my pedalboard I am also using a Vox Valvetone and a Maxon OD820. The Barber Direct Drive is very compatable with both of them. It hard to find and use multiple gain pedals that are compatable with one another. The Direct Drive has more tube character than any of the Tubescreamer products. That includes all the TS9 and 808 clones.

Judging by their reputation and looking at the build of the piece, I don't expect any problems.

Never dealt with the company

This pedal is a great match for the guitarist that simply wants a great tube amp overdrive. Great for most styles of playing!. Vintage rock, Blues, Country, Modern Rock. A great addition to my pedalboard!
This is truely a great sounding pedal! Thanks Barber Electronics!

Very Easy to use. Vol,Tone,Drive, with a push/pull on the tone knob.

I use a '93 Hamer Special FM with Duncan '59/JB Pups > Barber DD > Dunlop Rotovibe > A/DA Flanger > EH QTron > DOD FX96 EchoFx Delay >
EH Holy Grail Reverb > '65 Vibro Champ.(My setup as of now) Have lots of other cool effects, Too many to name. Not a noisy pedal very nice sound all around, doesn't color my tone and gives me a wide array of
OD settings. My favorite setting is vol 11 o'clock, tone 12 o'clock(with the push/pull in up pos.) drive at 2 o'clock. I get the best sounding OD I have heard yet. Very natural sound amp OD. When I crank my Vibro Champ It kicks the amp into harmonic heaven. The key is to have the Tone knob pulled up, this gives you awesome harmonics not found on ANY other OD. I like it better than the Tubescreamers(which I do like, but compress my tone way too much) The DD does not do this, it just gives you a fat sounding OD. There is also a trim pot inside that I found out from Dave Barber is new to the unit and adjust the bass resonse, which I really love. You can get so many sounds from early Marshall to cranked Fenders to a uncompressed Tubescreamer, to subtle blues.

Very dependable, Barber makes only quality pedals and I could see this lasting me forever. Very neat wiring. Quality parts etc......

Dave Barber e-mailed back very quickly. I asked him about the trim pot inside and he told me I was the first person to ask about it on the newer units. Very Nice Dave. Great customer support. The only 10 I will give for this review, cause 10's are hard to give because nothing is perfect, except Barbers support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I play whatever comes to mind. I do not pigeonhole myself into one form of music. I am not a pro or touring musician, I just love the guitar and especially effects/amps and gadgets. I have been playing for 15 years and am always looking for cool effects that are made well, sound great, don't break easily and have great designers/builders who care about the people who buy their products. If it were stolen I would I would track down the bastard and beat him a slow death with a barbwire bat and shock him with a cattleprod.
All in all a great OD for a fantastic value built by a top notch builder/human being who cares about his customers. Great work. Dave!!!!!

On the surface, the DD is very simple to use. Plug it in and go. However, it will take some fine tweaking to get it to really sound good with your rig. The manual is a nice overview of the pedal, but it is notable that all the sample settings, except for one, show the Drive knob set very low. This is because if you crank past 1:00 you're into the land of noise...the only problem with this pedal.

PRS Standard 22 into a couple of pedals (Barber Comp, FT 69, MXR Noise Gate, EH Small Stone, Line6 EchoPark) into a Dr.Z MAZ38 1X12. The DD is VERY noisy! When the drive is cranked, the unit is virtually unusable. Which is really frustrating because otherwise the overall sound is SO good and full of harmonics. If you roll back the drive to like 10:00 or 8:00 and mess with the tone, you get a beautiful thick mellow over drive with no noise. It's a major tease though, because if you of course want to crank the drive, and it sounds frigg'n amazing...until you stop playing and are hit in the face with a wall of noise and feedback. All OD's and DS's are noisy, but you know when a good gate set to full-on can't squash the buzz and crackle, it's bad. So if you're looking for a sweet-spot mellow OD pedal, you've found one of the best. But, if you like a more heavy driven sound, forget it.

I've had mine for 6 months and it seems to be able to put up with general rock-abuse. However, I'm benching this pedal as of this writing, so I can't speak for the long term. Never felt like I needed a back up...seems very well made.

Never had to deal with them. However, I hear they're nice.

I've played heavy rock and blues for over 20 years. For my mellow tones, the DD was great but almost an afterthought because you can just set your amp to get that same tone and it naturally sounds better. So, I would say this pedal was not a "good match." Don't know who's running around stealing and losing all these pedals, but if it were lost or stolen, I wouldn't care or replace it. I've tried so many OD pedals over the years and this was by far one of the best. Which is why it really SUCKS that it is so noisy. Major design flaw! In the end, nothing beats the true sound of OD'd tubes.

I had no problem getting a great sound out of this pedal. My problem is, I find a setting I love and then don't take the time to see what else it is capable of doing. It is easy to use, but there's got to be an easier way to make the push/pull tone switch more usable. I prefer it pulled up but it can be pushed back down fairly easy on a pedal board.

My guitars are a G&L Skyhawk (strat)w'Fralin Blues and a Godin SP90 also eqipped w/Fralins. My amp is a Peavey Classic 50 head with two 12" Vintage Celestions. My pedal board has (in order of appearance)a Fulltone Clyde, Fulltone FDII, Fulltone Dist Pro, Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive (with Keeley mod), VL Analog Chorus, VL Micro Vibe, Keely Compressor, Boss - Tremolo, Harmonizer, DD6 Delay, then Fulltone Fat Boost. The Direct Drive is compatable with all of the effects pedals, but as with the 'High End" overdrive pedals that can be stacked or used together, the DD stands on it's own very well. And for ninety bucks! There's minimal noise. I've read that the tone is similar to the "Dumble" type of singing harmonic sustain. I can sure get closer to that sound than with any of my other pedals. The other pedals are still great but they can't get this tone. My favorite players would be Robben Ford, Steve Morse, Doyle Bramhall II, Ty Tabor, Mike Landau, Scott Henderson, etc. There's a lot, but also very diverse styles.

This appears to be built on the same level as the Fulltone pedals or the Voodoo Labs (and hopefully with better switches than the VL stuff). I've had it about 2 months so it's too early to comment.

I haven't had to contact them and I don't see any upgrades that would enhance this pedal.

I play in different settings - rock, country, blues, worship at church. This pedal has a place in any of those styles or venues(depending on your church). I've been playing since high school (graduated '71), but have been seriously tone searching since about '91. I would buy this pedal again. As a matter of fact, I recommend buying 2 of them anyway for the price, because you will want to have one to let your friends take home to try while you still have one to play. I chose this pedal by reviews here on HC and also other webs sites. By checking the dates of the previous postings and reading the great reviews I am surprised that the price has not increased. Well done Mr. Barber.

The controls are just like any other overdrive pedal. Gain, tone, and volume. Super easy to dial in a good setting, and the pull pot feature on the tone control is a nice touch to add a little tonal variation.

I run a 2003 Highway-1 Telecaster with a Little 59 humbucker in the bridge (which will be replaced as soon as I get the money) through a Boss DM-2, Ibanez CS-9, and Direct Drive into an EKO amp from the 60's. This is the only overdrive pedal that I've gotten to sound good with my guitar, especially that single-coil neck pickup. I used to have a TS-5 when I started playing electric that I started to hate after a while, then I tried an Ibanez Tube King that a friend loaned me. The Direct Drive sounds amazing with my setup. I can dial in a wider range of settings than I need, and it sounds good no matter what settings you have it at. This pedal is an excellent replacement for a gain channel, since my amp is basically a single-channel amp. I think I'd be a little happier if I had the ability to dial in extreme enough settings to make it unusable. I'd just prefer to have the option.

I haven't had this thing for long enough for things to start going wrong, but I've opened it up, and it's built near-flawlessly. The soldering looks great, and the enclosure is rock-solid. I'm sure the 3PDT switch will go out eventually, but they do on everything so it's not really a concern, and that can be replaced easily enough. I'm basing my rating off of the circuitry and enclosure, which looks invincible.

I haven't dealt with them, but they're a boutique manufacturer, so I assume I could get ahold of them if I needed to.

I play some pretty arty music, and this pedal is an essential part of my sound. I like to use different chord voicings when I can (I play mostly rhythm and leave the leads up to my bassist) and this pedal has excellent chord definition; very amp-like. I'm a pretty big tone snob, so I wouldn't be using this pedal if it sucked. Really, the only complaint that I have about it is that the pull pot doesn't have such a nice, weighted rotation as the other two. Other than that it's a solid piece of equipment. I just wish the settings to so rediculous as to be insane. I just like to have more control than I need. This is a minor issue though, since it gets to about the limits of what I like to use, but stops before being over the top. If it were stolen or lost I'd be on the phone the next day ordering a new one.

Admittedly I didn't do that much shopping around when I went to go buy a pedal, but I read about the Direct Drive in a magazine and their review was pretty convincing. I don't regret my decision at all.

I'd like to add that it has the same IC chip as an Ibanez TS-808, so you're getting that classic Tube Screamer sound, except it's a hand-made pedal with true bypass and the pull pot that lets through more harmonics. Oh, and it's cheaper than a Tube Screamer. The price they ask is a steal. Order one soon before more people realize how much they rule and the price goes up.

Very easy to use & the pull tone control provides a surprisingly wide range of tones. When pulled, the pedal sounds the same to my ears as the DD SS with trimpots set stock.

More open & natural sounding than a TS9 but not so much of a departure that TS9 fans won't like it. The tone control has a great range & never sounds bad. The pull tone is especially nice, it deserves a dedicated switch for kicking in on solos.

N/A

Dave's a nice guy but I didn't keep the pedal long enough to actually need real support.

Sounds great through an open sounding amp like a Super Reverb or a Marshall. Midrange-heavy amps like my H&K Puretone & Fender Pro Jr. are not a great match for it, IMO, but then that'd probably be perfect for anyone going for a ZZ Top kind of sound.

When I first tried the pedal, it was next to both the DD SS & the LTD. I actually thought the LTD was the most open & natural sounding of the three but took the DD home because it has a much wider range of tones available & can get fairly close to copping the LTD sound (it does a dead-on DD SS, obviously, but without having to mess with the trimpots). Unfortunately, I came to regret this decision over the short period of time that I hung on to this pedal & ended up swapping it for something else. The LTD will probably be my next purchase.

As I hinted at earlier, this pedal is perfect for anyone that likes the TS9 sound but wants to take it to the next level (with more versatility, I might add). I might add that I probably would have kept it if I still had a Super Reverb.

Super easy to use, 3 knobs. On/Off, light indicator. All you need.

Well, all I can say is I am now getting rid of my vintage Tubescreamer (early 80's) and Vox Valvetone. This pedal captures the essence of "that" tone, but adds a certain element that has clarity yet grinds and is warm. That's the best way I can describe it. It is my new overdrive favorite, and I'm a die hard tubescreamer fan, so this is a big deal to me.

Hopefully it will last a long time. Very well built, solid pedal.

Don't know.

Killer deal from a pawn shop, this is a keeper. Can't wait to check out other Barber products now that I have discovered this gem.

VERY EASY TO USE.YOU ALSO CAN FIND SETTINGS ON THEIR WEB SITE.I GOT IT AS A GIFT FROM A FRIEND IN AUSTIN. ED STOCKTON.ONLY THING YOU MUST WATCH THE TONE KNOB IS PUSH PULL TYPE UP GIVES YOU A FATTER OVER DRIVE .BUT IF YOU DONT WATCH YOU COULD PUSH IT DOWN WHILE TURNING PEDAL ON AND OFF..

IAM USING A ES-335 GIBSON A CARVIN STRAT.AND A DELTA BLUES 210 TUBE AMP,WONDERFUL LITTLE AMP.I USE A DIRECT DRIVE,AND OLD IBANEZ CS -505 CHORUS PEDAL AND A BOSS DELAY. THE EFFECTS WORK WELL TOGETHER MY FAVORITE ARTIST HAVE THEIR SOUND AND I HAVE MIND. I LIKE PHIL KEGGEY,JOHN AND EDGAR WINTERS.JIM REEVES, FARRON YOUNG,ED STOCKTON.THE SOUND QUALITY IS VERY GOOD SORT OF OLD MARSHALL MEETS TWEED NOT A METAL PEDAL.ITS ALSO WORKS WELL IN PUTTING YOUR AMPS DISTORTION CHANNEL OVER THE TOP.ITS THE BEST PEDAL IVE HEARD UNDER 100 BUCKS.IT LETS YOUR GUITAR SING AND ITS NOT COMPRESS I HATE A COMPRESS SOUND.GO TRY ONE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF,JESUS RULZ BUT THE PEDALS COOL

YEA ITS BUILT VERY WELL.METAL CASING YOU COULD THROW AT THE DOG,THEN PICK IT UP AND PLAY IT.I USE VERY LITTLE BACKUP ANYTHING.YES I WOULD AND HAVE USE IT WITHOUT BACKUP. IT WILL STAND TOE TO TOE WITH BOSS EASY.

HAVE NOT HAD IT LONG ENOUGHT.AND SO FAR IVE ONLY SEEN THIER WEB SITE BUT NEVER HAD TO DEAL WITH THEM YOU CAN HEAR IT OVER THE NET.BUT THERE IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE COMPUTER SPEAKERS,THEN THE FANES IN MY MY DELTA BLUES ARE MY CELLESTION 30S IN MY MARSHALL. ILL GIVE THEM A 8 ANYWAY.

IVE BEEN PLAYING 25 TO 30 YRS.15 YRS CONTEMPARY WORSHIP.IVE PLAYED CHRISTAIN METAL,ROCK,MY FAVORITE IS SOUTHERN ROCK,BLUES TEXAS STYLE,AND OLD COUNTRY LIKE FARRON YOUNG BUT MY FIRST LOVE IS GOD AND WORSHIP.THIS PEDAL DOES EVERY THING I DO AND DOES IT WELL.IFI LOST IT YEA I THINK I MIGHT REPLACE IT UNLESS I FOUND SOMETHING COOLER.FOR THE MONEY I THINK ED PAYED 99 BUCKS FOR IT,ITS VERY COOL;WELL I HOPE YOU AND JESUS GET THINGS WORK OUT CAUSE JESUS RULZ...

3 knobs, with the middle (tone) knob on a push/pull pot. I gave my pet spider monkey a slice of banana every time he dialed in a cool tone. He's now lying flat-back on the floor in a potassium stupor...

Okay, so I have a few overdrive/distortion pedals - Boss SD-1, DS-1, Keeley-modded BD-2, Keeley-modded TS9 Baked Tube Screamer, Digitech something-or-other hunk of metal junk, and the Barber Direct Drive. Truth be told, I favor the Keeley Baked TS9...for no other reason than the increased gain. But when I set both pedals on the floor through an A/B, I did not really notice a great difference between the two (tonally) when set at comparable gain levels. The tone knob needs to be in the pulled up position to get that extra chunk from the DD, but the two pedals sounds remarkably alike. The TS9 has the edge due to gain alone from where I sit.
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So here's the kicker...the Barber is $70 cheaper. Of course, Mr. Keeley must first buy the stock TS9 and then mod it to his specs, so I'm not faulting him at all for the price difference. But the point is, if you want a really good overdrive/distortion pedal at a very reasonable price point, the Barber DD is a fine choice in my opinion. Even though the Keeley stays on my working pedalboard, the Barber is very comfortable at home on my practice amp and makes me very happy. I don't regret this purchase at all.
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In fact, if the Keeley were stolen, I'd cry for a few minutes and then promptly put the DD on my board and step back from the precipice of despair.

Can't complain so far. I've owned the pedal for around a month and a half, though...so not too sure how the switch will hold up over the long haul. Switches are always the weak points on the pedals I've owned. But outside of that, this thing is sewn together into a nice solid metal enclosure and the components inside appear to be of good quality and are well assembled. I'd rather not numerically rate the device, though, without having slapped it around and watched it spit in my face in defiance. So suffice it to say that it *looks* like it can hold its own in a scrap.

Have not needed to contact Barber yet.

I've been playing on again/off again for about 16 years...in all styles from speed metal (when I was 18-22 years old) to more recently a strange mix of jazz, blues, and rock.
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Bottom line...I really dig this pedal overall. If it were stolen, I'd surely buy another. It has a very good quality sound in a not-so-expensive package. Barber seems to be taking the high road with their products in that they are delivering the goods without playing the price gouging game (like Klon and Landgraff have done...$300 for a decent booster and $400 for an overdrive, respectively...yeah, sure! How much R&D did you put into those boxes, anyway?). Kudos to any company that can manage such a feat as being fair to the customer.
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Based on my experience with this pedal, I'm already contemplating a purchase of the Barber LTD and Tone Press. If those pedals are anything like the DD in terms of overall bang for the buck...count me in!

3 knobs , middle pulls out for a boost . A little tricky to tweak a good sound from it. The pull knob is a bit difficult to grasp.

telecaster,hot rod amp . Cant turn the gain up too much before encountering quite alot of noise (hum). I wasnt thrilled with the sound of this pedal. not too much sustain , not too smooth . made my treble pickup sound very nasal like a wah pedal in the mid spot.

seemed well built

Barber seem easy to contact. I got it from Pedal Geek and they seem like a reasonable outfit.

Ive tried alot of these pedals and they all dissapoint me. Often in their decriptions , all the buzz words are thrown about ie: transparent , touch sensitive , shimmering , clean , tubelike , fat etc. the list goes on. Kind of gets ones hopes up beyond whats possible. Actually one of the better pedals Im using is a $14 arion tubulator.

Plug in yer axe, then plug the pedal into yer amp, doofus. Turn the knobs 'till it sounds good. Duh. Basic device. Three knobs, one of 'em (tone) pulls out fer FAT.

I never give 10's. I am basing this review on just this box straight into my Mesa Dc-5 12" combo w/ 12" ext cab (both w/ celestions). My main axe is an 'ol '79 ibanez (blazer) strat with a dunkmore semen JB JR. in bridge, stock mid and neck. It's so damn squishy sounding. Thick 'n squishy. Very harmonically appealing, musical, and quite satisfying. I like it better than anything else I've tried. Not a goofy SRV wannabee, thank God. No super-modded,"vintage" ts-whatever nonsense crap here. It LOVES my fatdawg LesPaul. I crank the drive, pull-out the Fat switch (on the tone pot) turn up the 'Boogie, and it just doesn't get any better. My tele sounds neato thru it, too. I definately can recommend it to humbucker people. I refuse to make comparisons to other drive units, it is it's own thing. SUPER BANG FER THE BUCK, BUCKO! Aww, what the heck, I give it a ten.

I've had it a coupla months. I'd use it without a backup, as the quality is superior. I use it with a power supply.

This guy is a cool dude (dave barber). I called to ask a bunch of dumb queations and realized afterword that it was the owner I was talkin to. He was patient and intelligent. One can only imagine what the poor guy has to deal with from all the guitar geeks in the world. He's not pissed off at us, yet! I am not giving a ten, cause I've never had to have anything repaired, so don't know the whole skinny.

Love it!!!!

This is just a correction of a mistake in my previous review.

In my previous review below I wrote:
''... the electronic components are probably of somewhat lesser quality than the FT FD II and you can hear that at the highest gain ..'' Actually that is plain WRONG and I apologize to David Barber and to all the HC readers. namely I did some of my testing with the open box (in order to tweak those small knobs
in the SS model - I actually do not need those settings :-)
so the noise at highest gain was higher. The moment I closed everything and even used the box at the highest settings with THD all tube amp the noise was negligible: bravo David !

Also for the completeness, I have now tested DD against all various boxes I have for the second time and I can confirm that Fulltone Fulldrive is the closest but with lower gain overall (and less passionate sound) and H & K Tubefactor can sound almost as good or to some ears even better but is much bigger and again more expensive box.

Unless you play Rectifier metal type of leads do not bother with the SS model as DD covers all styles up to heavy rock and classic metal. No other small $99 box cn cover such a tonal range with so much character and juice: a true winner !

By mistake I bought the more expensive SS model that is useful if you need more Mesa-Boogie type of distortion and more harmonics or presence. So now I use my DD SS in the low bass, low presence, no harmonics mode and that is effectively $30 cheaper DD model, so I have added my review here FYI but with no rating although I can confirm that this pedal deserves 10 (and I play regularly since 1960 :-)

BTW, highly rated pedals like Tonebone Classic or British can compete with DD but are less suitable for the stage use. For LIVE gigs I do strongly recommend just this $99 Direct Drive !

Introduction: Features

It has Tone, Drive and Volume and once you decide your tone and the starting volume by varying the drive know you can cover anything from slight boost of your clean tone (tube amp or digital amp - works too!) to tubescreamery SRV to tubey singing, all the way to marshally tube burning ...

Well, you have to also choose and tweak additional 3 small settings inside the box (presence, bass, harmonics content), and I chose the TS808 recommended settings and use it like that - namely, I do NOT play metal - only jazz, blues and light rock, latino etc ...

THE Sound:

I tested DDSS with the very best gear there is including my fender Strat Plus, Gibson Les Paul or even Line 6 Variax guitar through the all tube (Rivera 6550a output tube) THD Univalve (arguably the best tube, reference amp in the world) through the 112 Fane vintage deep cabinet and also through Roland VGA-3 COSM modeling (digital) 112 combo ... DDSS passed all my tests with flying marks and I do know THE tone for sure ... BTW, I used my VHT Valvulator 1 power supply (with a tube) and special no loss monster cables in all tests; also Danelectro vintage 9V batteries ... so my test is as reliable as it gets.

Well, THE sound is certainly there. I have all the other pedals too, so I can compare it and did compare it with: the Maxon TS808 - that's tTHE recommended original circuit great sounding tubescreamer and DDSS sounds tubeyscreamy but also slightly more marshalish, more rock; the same is true for the Fulltone Fulldrive II that is definitely overall finer and more subtle pedal than the DDSS (also somewhat less noisy) but FD II has less gain ... I could go on... BUT the bottom line is that DDSS is almost as versatile as Tech 21 SansAmp Classic (the original) in covering anything from the fine tubescreamer bluesy sounds to singing Santana leads or screaming burning Marshall stack in Hendrix Woodstock style ... all that for $130 in a very, very small box - unbeatable value!

I decided to use it as a tubescremer for blues and for singing Santana to Hendrix 'gymnastics' leads with Strat and LP and it does all of that beautifully. In the blues area I can maybe use $250 BJF electronics Blue Baby and get even more screaming ragey bluesy ('angry') sound, and from $200 FT FD II I do get perhaps more subtle variations of the lower gain guitar tones, while $135 Maxon OD808 is somehow more fluid in low gain tubescreamer range, while $200 H & K Tubefactor (all tube) has more screachy metallico singing tube sound - but you see the DDSS can cover ALL that in a small package for only $130 ! and I even suspect that I could have simply bought just the Direct Drive, without inside controls of bass and harmonics or presence, as I am not going to fiddle much with those ...

In summary, the electronic components are probably of somewhat lesser quality than the FT FD II and you can hear that at the highest gain (which is normal - any burning Marshall produces a lot of noise too!), yet this pedal has THE sound ranging essentially from the SRV tubescreamer to Hendrix burning Marshall - and that means firm 10 in any serious guitarist book.

I play since 1960 and I play any style except the noise-metal or techno-screach ...so my tone is mainly from sweet clean jazz like Kenny Burell, to bluesy Buddy Guy or SRV all the way to singing Santana and occasional Hendrixy 'gymnastics' screaming or Vernon Reid or Van Hallenisms ... Usually for that range I would need my THD Univalve and two OD pedals like Maxon OD808 for tubescreaming and then VS Route 66 in a series or Big Muff or the SansAmp Classic or H&K Tubefactor or FT FD II to get to singing Santana or ultimately to burning Marshall tones ...

Now this pedal can and does cover all that ! It is not better in any sub-areas from any of the above: You can have maybe a slightly subtler, dedicated tubescreamer sound from specially moded OD808, but in all fairness the DDSS comes as close to that that the difference is purely academic - indeed it is a TS808 killer (and I use it exactly in that setting like the basic DD model ! which tells you a lot). The FT FD II is more subtle in low to medium gain range and has also the compression singing mode, but in truth the DDSS is more wild more passionate somehow more true guitar-amp sounding ... in a direct comparison, the FD II is almost like a slightly 'edited', polished pedal ... and moreover DDSS can and does offer the gain all the way to the burning Marshall and that you do hear with different guitars: in other words the DDSS covers also the rock sounds too and in a very convincing way! My THD Univalve (with all knobs set at 11am) sounded just as a burning Marshall double stack (at Woodstock) and that was with Fender Strat Plus Silver Lace (not extremely gainy) single coils - so this DDSS pedal has some serious drive (gain) in it, yet does not color your basic guitar sounds or character ... impressive!

In summary, all exquisite tone and tube tone maniacs like myself can and should buy DDSS (or DD?) as these boxeseasily cover a lot of tonal ground LIVE on stage ... Basically, with a good wah pedal and DDSS you can play all evening through a good tube amp and you won't need anything else to cover a huge tonal range (clean to blues to light to heavy rock). (It does probably metal light gain range too!). I suspect it may become my main pedal (on stage) from now on with maybe BJF Baby Blue to be used in one raging blues solo only ... For specific dedicated recording tones I may continue to use other pedals and boxes (I do have the Roland VG-88v2 too ... or even Award Session(Morley) JD-20 or Behringer V-Amp2 ...) but I have a hard time to think of another very small pedal that covers it all: from fabulous bluesy SRV tubescreaming all the way to the burning rock screaming Marshall (you just vary the drive and volume) ... OK I can probably do that with my $270 Tech21 SansAmp Classic pedal but you have to fiddle small buttons and even then you won't get quite all the CHARACTER and VOICE that this DDSS has - hence I conclude: if you have $130 and love your own guitar sound: just go and buy one !

I passed on this pedal after reading some of the early reviews on this site, and bought a few other OD pedals. After hearing Jason Barkers audio review of this pedal I was blown away. I also read a few of the newer reviews and bought this pedal.

I can say for certin that there are some stupid people reviewing this pedal on this site.If you can't get a good overdrive & tone from this pedal you should take up the accordion, or better yet, buy a fish bowl & watch the fish swim round & round, leave music playing to people that know real tones..
I ran it into a Koch combo & an extention cab, with greenbacks. i set it up with just a touch of crunch on the amp. I ran the pedal with the tone pulled up & at 3 oclock, the volume & drive both at 12 oclock. I used a ESP strat with duncan humbuckers, a musicman Axis with z-90 harmonic design pickups, and a hamer artist, with duncan 59ers. this pedal sounded awesome on all 3 guitars, I then pulled out a stock american strat, and it sounded killer. It was very Dumbleish in feel & response & i know dumbles, I have owned 3 of em...I think it had more of a modern feel as far as the super fast sweep runs, where the dumble could not keep up like this tone. I also was told that this pedal likes 6L6 tubes & not EL34's. well I play on a amp with EL34's and it sounded awesome, I also played it on a super reverb with the same success...AWESOME PEDAL..so save some money on the hunt looking for the best OD pedal, cause this is it, IMO...

built very well, should last a good long time...

Very good talking to them, and they seem to understand all the different amps out there..was very helpfull talking about other pedals from other makers, and what theirs bring to the table...

I play Jazzy southern rock with lots of guitar. I played a ton of the newer pedals out there, and this pedal sounds alot better then most of em. and for $99, what a steal....believe me this pedal has TONE FOR DAYS....I am buying a few more to give to my guitar player friends..awesome just awesome...

Very easy to use--gets a great classic, natural overdrive sound.

Setup is Fender American Standard Tele and a 60's Vox Berkeley tube amp. As far as pedals, I use a Boss TU2 tuner, Barber Direct Drive, and Korg Toneworks Echo. It's not very noisy. I use this pedal for leads only. The Vox is a class A 15 watt tube amp, so it breaks up great at about 2 o'clock. The Direct Drive gives me extra sustain, volume, and gain for leads--I set the level at 3 o'clock, the tone all the way off (my amp is super bright by itself) and the drive at 8 o'clock. The tone knob is pushed in. For a low wattage amp that sounds good by itself, this setting works great for classic lead tones. Sound quality is pristine, especially for a $100 pedal.

So far so good, I've had it for about 6 months, about 4 times a week between rehearsal and gigs.

Haven't had to deal with the company yet.

I would definately by this pedal again if lost or stolen. I have not found an overdrive pedal that works well with my amp, they've all been too brittle sounding, or too over-the-top sounding. I've tried Fulltone FullDrive (a great pedal, but my amp doesn't like it), Nobles Natural Overdrive, King of Britains, Badcat, Boss, Realtube, and several others. Also tried several clean boost pedals, such as the MXR MicroAmp. All of these pedals seem to work great for some people, but the Direct Drive works best for me and my setup. No matter what people rave about, or how good a pedal is supposed to be, the only way to know for sure is to try it with your guitar and your amp. Preferably while playing with the rest of the band--believe me, there is a huge difference between that and just testing it at the store--you'll never truly know until you use it with your band. I've been playing for about 20 years, mainly small to midsized venues, nothing huge. Certainly not as experienced as the reviewer before me.

3 knobs. If you can't figure them out, you should play the triangle.

Tom Anderson Hollow Classic, Hollow T or Cobra-Barber Tone Press-Barber DD-Barber DD SS-EB Volume Pedal-Budda Twinmaster 212 and Budda Superdrive 18 112. I use one DD for rhythm and the SS for my higher gain lead sound. Great lush Eric Johnson type lead tones that clean up very well. Nice Robben Ford type blues sound as well. Maybe I am a simpelton, but I think that too many of the reviews I read on these post are over-analyzed. If the tone's there, it's there. Play well. Don't suck. Have taste and touch and the pedals, whatever you use, will still sound good. I have always hated the way that ODs made my amps sound tinny or small. This pedal seems to open up very well and give me the sustain and dynamics I need. I have gigged 3-5 times per week and have played many outdoor shows and festivals for up to 20,000 people over the last 15 years. I consistantly have soundmen and guitar-playing audience members tell me that my tone is rich, full and cuts through amazingly well. Players constantly ask me what pedals I am using. Their opinions mean more to me than arbitrary reviews by bedroom hobbyists. Not trying to sound like a jerk at all. Just the way I feel. If you are happy with the sound of your guitar and amp and just need some great, full, sustainy dynamic gain, i think this is a great unit to try. Heads and shoulders above anything else I have ever used for my particular rig and style.

seems solid...no problems

very helpful and answered questions in a timely fashion...no major problems to test them so a 9 it is...

I have been playing Country-Rock-Jazz-Blues-Classical and Solo Acoustic Fingerstye for over 22 years. I own a recording studio and have worked as a session player on numerous album projects, soundtracks and jingles. I would replace the units I own if stolen without a second thought. I have enough to worry about just playing the best I can and always sounding good. These pedals allow me to do just that. I just want to step on it and know that my tone and playing comes through without me having to fight too hard for it. They allow me NOT to think/worry about the sound. Rock On.

Volume,Tone (Pull for FAT), and Drive. 9v AC adapter plug in, True Bypass Switch. Very little effort.

I play a Charvel Predator with Seymor Duncan aph-1 Alnico II pro in bridge position and Seymor Duncan Duckbucker neck position. Effects= Barber DD into Fender HotRod De Ville 4x10. DD replaced Ibenez TS-9/808 silver mod by Analogman and a Boss DS-1 pro mod also by Analogman. I use other effects at times, but find the best setup is usually the simplest. I have also tried the DD through my Fender Blues Jr. I really like this pedal with the HRDV. I can get a very nice classic rock sound through the clean channel. I have never been impressed with the HRDV drive channels but have always loved its clean sound. The DD definitely helps this amp to be much more versitale. I wouldnt say that the DD makes my Fender sound like a Marshall or whatever, but it does help a very good clean amp sound good with OD. The pedal is much more transparent and not nearly as compressed sounding as the TS-9. As with any OD or dist pedal it does add noise when turned on but its not too bad. Over all this is a great sounding pedal with the HRDV. I however was not impressed with its sound through the Blues Jr. But I have never been very happy with this amp. No pedal has ever worked well it.

Seems to be built very well. I was not too impressed with the battery setup though. There is nothing that holds it stationary inside the box, only the connector. I also find that the sound is better (more Transparent) when the 9V AC plug is used. Relatively new I have no reference to judge reliablity.

Bought through musictoys.com no experience with Barber electronics

I have been playing for 27 yrs and have owned/traded/sold a ton of equipment. With pedals I have found that what sounds good one day can sound like crap the next. Your sound/Tone is a combination of you, your guitar, pickups, effects, amp, ect... Not One single component alone is going to make your sound unique or great. I look for pedals that inhance the sound of a great amp and guitar, not mask it or make it sound like something else. I think the Barber Direct Drive is one of the better OD pedals that I have used. Well worth 99 dollars.

Very straight forward: tone, volume, and drive, with a push/pull control on the tone knob to add additional harmonics to the OD. All controls are useful and responsive throughout their adjustment ranges. The only complaint I have is that with the tone knob pulled up for additional harmonics, it is fairly easy to inadvertently hit it with your toe on the pedal board. Not a big deal, but a switch in place of the push/pull knob would eliminate this.

My setup is an '89 Strat Plus Deluxe with SD Hotrails & 2 SD Cool Rails >> Dunlop 535Q Wah >> Direct Drive >> Tech 21 Double Drive >> Proco Rat II >> Marshal DSL 401 >> TCElectronic G-Major (in the loop) >> Avatar G212H cabinet. This is obviously a highly subjective area, but I absolutely love the tone from this little box. In addition to the pedals listed above, I have also had a Maxon OD-9. The Direct Drive stomps the OD-9 and immediately replaced it. It offers a fuller range of overdrive, while restoring bass response and providing a much more natural, tube-like overdrive. The Tech 21 Double Drive offers more overdrive than the Direct Drive; however, the Direct Drive will cover 90 percent of what the Double Drive does in this area and is much better than the Tech 21 at delivering lighter overdriven tones. The Tech 21 seems to go fairly flat at lower drive levels, while the Direct Drive is toneful and responsive. The Rat is a distortion pedal, and accordingly it offers much more gain and a completely different range of tones than the Direct Drive -- different boxes, and good to have both. The Direct Drive box sounds more Marshall-esque than Fender, which I like. (As a matter of fact, I can easily dial in a tone that is virtually identical to the OD1 channel on my Marshall.) Anything above 9 o'clock on the drive is pretty hot. There is definitely enough gain on tap to cover virtually any classic rock tone. Pull the tone knob out, set the drive to 2 o'clock and you're easily into the ZZ Top "Tush" zone. The unit is reasonably quiet and well-made. I've also tried a HAO Rust Driver and the Fulltone Fulldrive II. To my ear, the Direct Drive is by far the best OD pedal I have played through.

Extremely well made. No issues to report here, and I don't expect any.

No experience with this one, although the reports on this site are good.

I've been playing for 15 years. I like classic rock and play in a casual band with friends. We gig about three or four times a year and otherwise play for fun. The Direct Drive is extremely useful in getting excellent classic rock tones. It's always cool to find and try out out new pedals, and I'm really glad I gave this one a try. Based on my experience with the Direct Drive, I'm definitely going to try the Burn Unit 2 and Tone Press from Barber. At $100 new, this unit is a no-brainer -- you really owe it to yourself to give it a try. Highly recommended.

Vol, tone (pull fat), overdrive, LED. Simple and effective. My unit has the LED in the rt upper corner below the OD control instead of over the switch as pictured.

I use it with a Carvin amp and guitar, Dod chorus, Crybaby,and a vol pedal. The Direct Drive does what Barber says it will do. It gives you a "Marshall" vibe OD with plenty of pick harmonics and sustain. The vol control allows you to get REALLY loud. The big thing is minimal compression. We all know a very compressed signal boxes in your sound. You may be getting a great sound 3 feet from your amp but the audience may not even hear you.

I've got 8 gigs under my belt with the DD and the unit seems very well made.

Friendly service, but only 48hr return privileges.

I'd say this is about the best $100 I ever spent to improve my sound. It makes playing more fun. The minimal compression combined with great sustain, pick attack, quality parts, and a $100 price tag makes the DD a winner. The tube OD in my amp is "richer" but more compressed. I can reach out very well with the DD. (Shipping charges were $11, but the actual charge by USPS was less that $6.)

The three typical knobs...but the pull-up-for-fat tone knob is not typical. Barber describes it as more "California"...Boogie, I presume. Would have been nice if the pull knob was a second switch, but that might be why he has the Tone Pump and Burn Unit.

Using a mid 80's Zion Turbo with HSH config, all Seymour Duncans, through a Rivera-modified '62 Princeton, which has a Celestion 12" in it. The unit is very good, but I prefer my Fulltone Fulldrive II, which I rate as a 9. The FDII is a little fatter, plus has the second switch for Boost, which gives me a three-channel setup: amp set clean, overdrive, and boost.

Looks extremely well-made, in and out. His reputationis excellent.

Again, his reputation is excellent.

I play a variety of styles, but consider myself a sort of r&b rock player. I enjoy Carlton and Ritenour, Eric Johnson has become a favorite. The unit is very, very good. I am always looking to top what I have, and based on the reviews below(particularly the ones that said they liked it better than a FDII) I thought I'd give it a try. I'll stay with the Fulltone. By the way, consider using musictoyz.com for your next purchase; good company to deal with...

As easy as it get`s, no need for a manual, but the one that comes with it is helpful...

Sound quality really depends on your amp setup...My guitars are Gibson Les Paul, Hamer USA Standard (explorer)
I find the DD works great with my Marshalls, a Musicman RD 50,and a `66 Traynor YBA1..but does not work with my `71 Traynor YBA1 or any Fender amps I`ve played..it is designed from what I gather to sound like Marshall/60`s Laney/Hiwatt, that`s why Fenders don`t jive as much,,it`s not that it sounds bad with Fender amps, it just works better with Marshall type amps...the biggest thing I find with the DD is it does not just `Sit on Top` of your amp sound, like most pedals...Rather it becomes `Part of` your amps sound` ...and when your recording with DD,you can hear that..it sounds as though you`ve had your non-master Marshall modded with a killer Master Volume, but in fact the amp can be totally stock...You have the ability to go from clean boost to `Rich Overdrive`,it`s a palm muting dream..it does not sound like any Tube Screamer I`ve heard..it our does them....And the sound quailty is supreme..

So far so good..
Always carry a backup...a gig or studio is no place without a backup..

Great, always eager to support a customer..If I e-mail Dave...I`ll get a response in a day or two..these guys live this stuff and it shows..

I play melodic Hard Rock, original and covers...been playing over 20 years...I had a Barber Tone Pump, that I said I would never sell, well this Direct Drive is the $%#@..haven`t used the TP in a while..if I need to boost solo`s I can use an old Boss SD1 or Ibanez TS9, I do have a Fulldrive that I rarely use, that boosts the signal too, though it is a cleaner boost...t However the Tone Pump and DD together can sound very dark..a bright warm boost pedal enhances the DD..
The point is most of my tone will from the DD first, the boost pedal (if needed) always comes in second...some times in chain the DD works better after the boost pedal,but is turned on `after` the DD is already on...I do notice that a fresh battery works wonders in t DD..it does not like a weak 9V supply...

Plug er in and blast off!

Excellent.....a very original sounding pedal. Lot's of tonal options in this little black box. I have not done the bass or open air mod to this. Just left it as it is. It works perfect for what I use it for, so why mess with it?

Well, I take care of my pedals. I have a few 20 to 25 year old pedals on my board and they look and work like they did when new. With proper care, I expect my 3 year old grandson to be using it in his retro ban in the year 2020.

Never dealt with Dave, but from what I've heard, he would bend over backwards to make his customers happy. On those points alone, he get's a 10

This pedal works well with both solid state and tube amps. As a matter of fact, it's one of the best overdrive pedals you can find if you play with a solid state amp. I use a Roland Blues Cube, Dean Markley RM-40, V-Amp ll and a Winnie Thomas Elizabeth. I use the Direct Drive in conjunction with a Vox Valve Tone, Boss Blues Driver, Fulltone Fulldrive ll and several delay, chorus, wah, volume pedals, etc. While it's in the same tonal ballpark as the Fulltone and Valve Tone, it has enough differences to warrant using them all. The DD excels at Robben Ford, Larry Carlton dumblesque type tones. It's fun to set the pedals for slightly different gain characters and swithc between them. I like and use all the above pedals, but id it came down to one overdrive, the DD and the Valve Tone would have to duke it out. The DD is the more versitile of the two, but hte VT has a certain sweetness the others lack. It would be a tough choice. I would probably have to go with the DD due to it's versatility. It just does so many things well. And the price! $100 new....Are you kidding me!!?? This thing kicks major ass on most of the big buck booteekees. Way to go Dave. I'd love to try the Tone Pump and the Burn Unit next.

Very easy to use and you can get a great tone that is personal to you. Works and sounds great in line with my Keeley compressor and CM Delayla. This unit respects your rig. Mine is the standard DD not the SS.

Strat>Keeley Comp>Sonic Boom>Barber DD>CM Delayla>Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ (clean channel). It is VERY quiet unless you crank the overdrive which gets you into plexi territory but that isn't really my schtick. Note: the clean boost is never on with the DD (and all my effects are true bypass, though there is apparently some debate re the Delayla...). And, did I mention TRANSPARENT. I will not buy an effect that colors my tone in any way, and the DD does not--what it does is enhance the harmonics, sustain and crunch/grind I get from the Boogie when the power tubes are pushed. VERY NICE, and it is never harsh. The high gain channel on my Boogie--which is really more of a high gain distortion trip--sounds cheesey in comparison to what the DD pushes through on the clean side. I am extremely pleased with this thing.

So far yes. Have had it about 9 months.

Dave Barber responded immediately to my e.mail questions with helpful and informative advice. He and others like him (Nick Greer and Robert Keeley come to mind) are why the boutique pedal business is booming. Probably only a matter of time, though, before companies like Roland and Korg buy these guys out.

I play classic and modern guitar styles--is that general enough? Started playing in 1967 when I heard Jimi. Back to the DD: If you find a better overdrive unit let me know, really, I mean it. I've tried many and none match this for smoothness. The sounds are truly sweet and musical, and the balance is very, very good with no undue emphasis on a particular frequency. The kicker for me is how it tightens up and focuses the low end. Buy it again? Hell yes. If stolen I would probably sink into a deep, dark depression.

3 knobs, pull the tone knob for fat harmonics. Pretty simple if you can hear.

I'm using it with Strat's and BF Twin. Strat's have Dimarzio VV's and VV Blues'. I love it. Nice and thick, warm, doesn't color the sound of the guitar. I can dial in a clean drive to a Plexi. Well almost a Plexi, after all the amps are Twins. The true-bypass is always a good thing and just as important are the cables you use.
I replaced an original TS-9 and OD-1 with this. I tried an FD-2 and opted for this because of its sound.
I don't know much about the other Barber stuff though he has set the standard on this one for me.

It looks and feels solid. Hammond style case the same as my Phase 100 that Ive had for 20+ years. The inside is extremely clean. If he built aircraft, I'd fly on them.
I have and will gig without a backup.

Never spoke to them, but based on the people before me I wouldn't worry about it either. The company I got it from in Canada was awesome.

I play pretty much everything and use it for nice tight overdrive. I still use my Rat for distortion and TS-808 for a clean boost. I have been playing for 25+ years and so far this seems to be one of the keepers along with a TS-808, Rat, Mutron III, MXR 100(script), AD-9, Analog Man Chorus, RMC-1, and OC-2. I love that it's creamy amp overdrive from a pedal. Like I mentioned, I compared it to an FD-2, TS-9, OD-1 and liked this much better. Interestingly enough, I just got the OD-1 off of ebay because of all the hype. I think the TS-9 is better and this blows both.
It definitely inspires me as it doesn't clutter up the sound like the OD-1 and TS-9. You can articulate each note nicely with this.
I'd like to share the pedal with you though I probably won't see you for a while.
For 99 bucks I don't see how you can go wrong.

Easy as turn and listen. Nice tonal variety. Manual recommendations are on target. I can tell a lot of research and thinking went into this box.

Wow! What an improvement. Against my TS-808, Howie and FD2, this pedal kicks butt. I just don't even bother with those pedals anymore. The DD does all that and more. Amazingly quiet and organic-sounding. From the clean drive to the Dumble, it's all there. I gig this pedal with my Carr Rambler and Clark Beaufort and it puts a real tiger (Marshall, Dumble) in the tank.

Yes, solid box. Too new to comment, though.

Barber helped me through deciding on this, but @ $99, I shouldn't have wasted his time (sorry David). He's totally cool - and one smart mofo.

By trade, I'm a jazz player, but to pay the bills, it's SRV and Robben Ford-type blues w/ some other stuff. I recommend this pedal for blues, rock, rockabilly, country, fusion - and anybody who wants their rig to get up and go, but wants to keep nice natural note and chord articulation.

Easy to use.......Good info in the manual, for gettin' started. Stock Direct Drive. Not an SS.

I'm trying all of 'em....Any and every distortion/overdrive dedal out there. All the Rats , MXR , Marshall, Boss(fake sounding, even my old OD-1 just sucks. I can't believe Boss is on so many pedal boards!?) , Digitech(like Boss but more fake? you tell me) , Visual Audio J&H(sent it back),and some Maxon's. If I did'nt talk smack , than I liked 'em. Some better than others. Waiting on my Pharoh Sweet Cheetah 2, and a McFuzz Hot. I'm trying them all alone , no chain . Just to compare. With different guitars(a few Gibson's, an American Strat, and a modified Yamaha w/ Fender lace P/U's and a Dimarzio Multibucker, and others. With my strat in the tasty front pickup setting, Nothing touches the Direct Drive. It's just too rich in wonderful harmonic tone. Mabe they all don't quite sound the same. My two Maxon D&S 2's had some of thier own character. This Barber DD Rules!

Still new..... third week, it's solid.

Called for power supply advice......Dude was way cool ....on a Saturday!

I teach and play many styles. I play Manual Rodrigues , Cordoba 30F, Ovation Custom Balladeer, Gibson, Fender. ..and more. 19 years playing . Rock , Blues , Classical , Flamenco, but my band now Worm Wagon , is Alt.Hard Rock, of some sort. Most fulfilling! This pedal does the blues better than ANYTHING I have heard. I want to find which pedals can give you a good sound anywhere, anytime on anyones rig. For 100 bucks , this pedal is truly a no brainer. Props to Barber on winning my 03' head to head pedal fest! SIB, Black Cat, Fulltone, Atomic, Frantone,(on and on it goes) .......can you guys answer Barber or what? I read that the gauntlet was thrown down with this pedal........that guy was right!!!

Easy. 3 nice looking knobs. Vol. Tone Gain Tone pulls out
for a mid boost.

Fat sounding. Nice full overdrive but not a huge amount of gain.
I felt I could duplicate and surpass it's sound with my Digitech tone driver. Not alot of bite.

A very handsome and solid unit. I'm sure it will last.

no comment

Very nice but not as good I feel as the hype. I often feel Guitar
Player rates very highly on appearances and vibe and this thing has it. However, as I said I was able to duplicate the sound with my Digitech tone driver and I also feel that the Boss OD-3 is better with a "glassier" tube tone.

Pretty easy. Push/pull adds nice harmonics. Easy and versatile. Hard to find an unuseable setting.

Wow! Dumble - yes. Marshall, vintage Marshall - yes. Tweed OD - yes. This box says what it will do and does it in spades. My Marshall 412, Dumble ODS, and K&M Custom have a hard time distinguishing themselves from the DD through a Silverface Fender at high volumes. I have all of these amps and more in the studio and even the best players in the studio guessed right only half the time. Pretty darn good for $99! If you can't get this pedal to do what you want - from blues to rock to fusion and in-between, well, then tone truly is in the hands isn't it? If you don't have the chops, don't expect this pedal to do that for you, but it's about the only thing it doesn't do.

Opened it up. Very nice. Smart layout. Barber knows what he's doing. Solid.

Yep. I've spoken w/ the Barber people many times - always good. Good people over there.

C'mon, for $99? Who can match or beat that? 25 years of playing clubs and 16 in the studios and this pedal is a first. Inexpensive, versatile, classic tones....what's not to like? Flat out, a 10.

It is as simple as most OD's. 3 Knob with Pull/Push Pot for Harmonic boost. Simple and easy to Mod with info on builders site.

Ok I will give it an 8. I personally don't care much for the unit and I will sell it on eBay, but its not a bad OD, well its not much of an OD. Its more of a distortion as it does not sound much like any of my tube amps cranked up. It has FAR more gain then a TS9. But very little air between the sound so things can get muddy really quick. Works well as a Clean Boost and for Blues guys its got depth in that mode. There are better units for that function however, some more some less expensive then the Direct Drive. There is a little Bass loss but not too much. Compression is not over done, but when its cranked up I think there is quite a bit of compression going on. Rolling back the Gain Knob will reduce gain, but feels as its choking off High end to do so. There is the standard loss of textures that comes from using a OD pedal regardless of setting but its not huge and does not color the natural tone of your instrument too much. I can say that this unit can take your 20w deluxe reverb and make it sound like your playing it through a 4x12 cab with a good amount of British crunch. It can sound huge, but more like a Crate then a Marshall. Not amazing, but useful. The Direct Drive gets lots of tones, sadly none that I like. The Pull Pot Harmonic boost is cool for bringing an amp to feedback quick. Some people think that this unit sounds "Dumblesque" Don't believe it for a second. It can sing but sounding like an Overdrive special. I doubt it. Anyone who says that has never heard an OD Special up close. All in all for 99 bucks its cheaper then a TS9 with more options. If your a blues guy, this is not for you. If your a rocker, you might find something in the box to work for you. Not a bad deal, but not the last OD your ever going to buy.

Seems well built, not a true PTP as a PCP is inside, but the pots and switch are not connected to the board directly so repairs and reliability should be no problem

Pretty good 48 hours to get an email reply. Not bad

Its OK...it falls in line with the TS9, Nobles, BOSS and others. Not an amazing sounding pedal for my needs, but it has purpose. You can get what you put into it your rig and your hands will tell the tail. I used this only for a couple of days and let several players us it at jams. Not once did I hear anything that made me sit up and take notice. I did however hear a Fulldrive II sound amazing durring those jams, and that pedal I really did not like when I bougth one from Fulltone. I Sold it fast as I could, so as with all things here on HC, take it with a grain of salt.

Three knobs with one having a pull switch. Set your distortion level, adjust the tone and your volume. Pretty darn simple!

I'm using this with a hardtail Strat-like guitar with a P-90 at the neck and a Duncan JB at the bridge. Other pedals are Dyna-comp > Ibanez TS-5 > Boss DC-2 chorus > Ibanez Volume Pedal > Boss DD-3 > Mesa-Boogie Studio .22+ amp. The DD goes after the comp and before the TS-5. The DD give me a brighter distortion tone then the TS-5 with lots of sustain. I tried one in a store and to my ear it sounded a little different then the one I have. But it's growing on me and making me happy. Especially after gigging with it.

Built like a friggin' tank! Unless you jumped on it with some big ol' clod-hopper boots, it'd be hard to do damage to this pedal.

I'd give an "11" if I could! I got a DD in a trade. It sounded raspy in the high end with some "artifacts" that I didn't like. A harshness that I couldn't dial it out. So, I contacted Barber and he had me send it to him. He didn't think anything was wrong, but to make me happy he sent me a brand new pedal! Now THAT'S customer service.

I play roots rock, Americana, world beat, intergalactic calypso pirate music and blues based rock.
Tone is subjective. The first DD that I tried in a music store, as I remember it, sounded a little warmer and smoother then the pedal I have. Maybe it was the guitar and amp I tried it with. But it's really a great pedal. Not my holy grail, but I find it extreamly usable and it will remain on my pedal board. I'm still learning what it can do. There are tweaks that I might try on the Barber website. I want to try it with my lap steel. I like it much more then the Keeley modded Metal Zone that I traded for the DD. But the guy I traded with loves it, so it all worked out in the end. Anyway, the Direct Drive doesn't give me exactly the tone that I'm after. But it's one I didn't have before and I can make good use of it. That's why it get's an "8."
If I were to lose this pedal, I'd probably buy the DD SS with all of the trim pots to tweak things out. I just can't stop fiddling with my gear.

the direct drive is a breeze, in fact its hard to get a naff sound out of it. i use mine with my boogie mk1 reissue , turn the drive to 2 o clock and level to 3 o clock and it screams...unit also cleans up marvelously. i think even my granny could have gotten killer tones with the barber.

increase the gain and listen to the compression take over.....yeah most pedals.....NOT the barber. beautifully transparent from gain meltdown to cleaned up strumming. i sold an analogman ts9/808 brown mod which slayed because the direct drive outperformed it totally.

waited 3 months to get it from usa........no probs so far, hope to have none either, too soon for objective comment on this.

spoke to dave barber on phone, nice guy and very helpful, purchase completed without any hassle whatsoever.

i dont hand out 10s if they arent justified, the direct drive is simply the pedal ive always been looking for. its brilliantly put together, has tones by the bucketload and fulfills every need i could have from a drive stomper. completely and utterly recommended from me.

It's easy to get a good sound out of this pedal, and the 3 controls on the face of the pedal are easy to operate. However, the 3 trim pots are only accessible by removing the bottom panel (4 screws). It was probably the most economical approach to have the trim pots where they are located, and it allows for a simpler circuit.

This is a comment/review of the Direct Drive SS (Super Sport) - $129 + shipping. I'm borrowing this pedal from a friend. I think many will be impressed (like I was) with the 3 trim pots that allow more presence, harmonics, and deeper bass to be dialed in. I've never heard the standard DD, but with the trim pots turned all the way down the sound is supposed to be the same as the standard DD (though the harmonics pot can be turned up a bit since the standard DD had a pull-harmonics tone control). I definitely like having the presence and bass pots turned up at least 1/2 way, and haven't decided on where I like the harmonics control yet.

Haven't had this long enough to give a rating, but it looks like it's built like a tank and is carefully constructed and soldered inside. I don't foresee any problems occuring.

Quick and friendly response to an email question I had.

It's probably worth the extra $30 over the $99 standard Direct Drive model to get these adjustable trim pots. There are mods (tweaks) that can be performed on the standard drive drive, but these pots allow for more fine tuning and more range. This pedal is a great value.

3 knobs with a push pull for the tone

I'm using this with a Parker Nitefly or Jackson RR into either a Reverend Hellhound or Marshall Jubilee Series. I wanted something to provide a full on lead sound for the Hellhound and the Marshall needs no more overdrive but I always use an overdrive pedal for solos just to focus and fatten the sound. The Direct Drive is somewhat successful for my purposes.

The lower overdrive settings are uncompressed and full, particularly with the Harmonics mode engaged. The higher gain settings are plenty saturated, and the pedal becomes somewhat compressed. But to me the higher gain settings are still not meaty or amp like enough for me. My Direct Drive sounds a litte flat on the high end, without the extended highs of say the Visual Sound Route 66 pedal.

There is no bass loss on this pedal (something I cursed about several other tube screamer products I have owned). This pedal is interactive with the guitar volume knob as well.

To me this is extremely well built.

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I was extremely impressed with this when I first received it. Since then I've had good days and not so good days with it. For me the tone control could provide a little more grit, it's to me more of a presence adjustment. The highs could also be a little more open sounding. Yes I am being picky. I have owned Boss OD1, Crowther Hotcake, Route 66, Vox Valvetone, etc and this to me ranks with the best of them.

Three knobs, no waiting. Pull pot for the tone harmonics thingy. This unit does not contain a bad sound when used with the right amp/guitar combo.

I had originally tried this pedal out at Tonemerchants and was NOT impressed. I tried it through a univalve with a CU24. I thought that the pedal sounded thin and lifeless. Fast forward one month.... I picked up a unit used after hearing the steelbender clips and thinking that it sounded better when Jason played it. I am using a germino lead 55 and a variety of different pedals, currently a RC boost and a MXR micro amp share the OD duties on my board with the DD.

I don't know what I was thinking before. This pedal with my Grosh into my Germino is heaven. The harmonics switch engaged is my favorite setting. Usually between 11 and 1 oclock on the gain and 12 on the volume. VERY articulate both with chords and single notes. I wish I had purchased this before I picked up the RC Boost. If I had my board would consist of 2 DD's. For 99 bux this pedal can't be beat.

Seems to be built very well.

Never had to deal with Dave.

This is a great meduim gain pedal that makes a great amp sing. I think this pedal may be very amp dependant though. Kinda like adding garlic to a recipe. Works great as long as you aren't trying to bake a cake.

Yeah I am gonna buy another one, even if it wasn't stolen.

Simple intuitive layout with 1 page manual. Similar Vol. Tone, Drive knobs as on other OD/distortion/boost pedals available these days. Pull function on the tone knob introduces unique "fat harmonics" mode. Nice smooth action with turning the knobs, footswitch seems rugged, case, jacks are all sturdy.

I use this device in a pedalboard setup in this order: Boss Compressor-Direct Drive-TC Electronics SCF-Boss DD5 Delay-Alesis Nanoverb. It only gets minor hiss with the fat harmonics mode at high gain settings. Main guitar is a 1995 Gibson ES 335 Dot Neck, amp is a Boogie MK III Simulclass w/no name 112 cab loaded with an Altec 417 12" speaker.
I didn't have much of a chance to fool with the Dierct Drive before taking it on a gig. When I first fired it up at club volume it was kind of trebly for my tastes so I rolled the tone down to about 9-10:00 with it pulled to fatten the sound. Drive was set about 12:00, volume at 11:00. This is where I found the sweet spot for my setup.
I still had to roll my guitar's tone down to 1/2 on either pickup but the sound was sweet and full with nice sustain. The good part about having that much bite is that if you need to cut through keys or horns there's plenty of it in this pedal, just turn up your tone knobs.
One of my all time favorite guitar tones is the sound Larry Carlton got on his "Last Night" album. I was close to getting this tone with the Direct Drive. Of course without Larry's fingers, mind, soul and no Dumble OD Special (modded for him) it's not likely to clone his tone anytime soon. But, compared to all the other pedals of this type I've tried or owned it's the only one that doesn't over compress the guitar's signal nor does it muddy up your tone with Tube Screamer inspired mids. And, it has plenty of gain so when you use your guitar's volume it will clean up enough for rhythm when down.
I've been using a well known boutique OD pedal for about 5 years that I've been very happy with. However, it doesn't have the clarity or range of overdrive of the Barber DD. Hey, for $99 how can you go wrong! You have to wonder about some of the prices being charged for other boutique pedals out there.
I'm giving it a 10 because of it's versatility, ease of use, and value for the price.

No problems yet. I always travel with a Boss Be 5 (simple non-programmable multi effects unit) for a backup as it works well going direct into the board if need be. You just never know.

I dealt with their sales guy one time when calling for availablility. Was very helpful, answered my questions, very personable. All I've heard are good reports about David Barber getting on the phone to resolve any issues.

I play "classic rock" and a mix of everything else in a function band but also work with a trio that does blues/fusion/jazz stuff. It can handle about any mild-moderate-hi gain overdrive/distortion sounds. When they say "direct" they're not kidding! If you want this pedal to be in your face like cranking up a Hiwatt, it will do it. It will also be softer, more compressed as well but not muddy or be tone challenged as some other pedals. I think it's more "amp" sounding and less processed. Some settings were giving me a sound similar to an old BF Deluxe Reverb with a rectifier tube with volume on 8-9. Nice singing overdrive with a little rectifier tube sag.
If I were stranded on a desert island with a 335, Deluxe or Super Reverb and a Barber DD I could be happy!
I would definitely replace this pedal if lost or stolen.

Very easy to use, like basically any other stompbox on the market. The push/pull tone is something quite unique, though, and to me adds a lot of useful vibe. Was sent a pre-release manual with some sample settings, but just fiddled with it like anything else.

I have a few different setups for different situations. My main setup which I use this with is this: Fender Strat with mods (roller nut, sperzels, Dimarzio HS-2's and Graph Tech string savers) >> modded Wah Dunlop (true bypass and added capacitor) >> Whirlwind A/B box (one input into tuner, one to effects) >> Barber DD >> Keeley modified Boss BD2 with Phat Mod >> self modified Ibanez TS-9 (808 specs) >> Ibanez DC10 Chorus >> Korg Dynamic Echo >> then into one of two amps, either a Tech 21 Trademark 60 (which I run direct) or a late 70's Silverface Fender Twin w/JBL's miked with a SM-57. I use the pedal with nearly maximum overdrive, because I use it for playing solos. I use the TS-9 for solos as well, and sometimes the TS-9 in conjunction with the BD2 for mad saturation. To me, this pedal has an overdrive that is VERY similar to that of the modded TS-9, with some exceptions (good ones). First, there is much more bottom end. It seems as though it fills up a sonic spectrum much more, whereas the TS-9 is midrange heavy. I can understand where some people whine that it is close to the TS-9, but it is more complex and MUCH more flexible. The overdrive is very clean, much more than that of the TS-9 and with the push/pull option, already it is in a class much higher than that of normal tube screamer type pedals. Pulling the tone knob seems to make it much fuller and definitely gives it 'cut'. I have to say, though, when I use it with the amount of drive that I do, there is some noise. But I don't step on it and then set down my guitar to go to the bathroom, so anyone with a bit of 'skill' can use a pedal in a manner that doesn't freak out on them. It took me a little while to get used to it, but that's because like any other guitarist, I am so used to typical tube screamers and all that, and this can give you anxiety option. It always sounds great. I gave it a '9' because I use it primarily for soloing, not for rhythm. I really like Robben Ford, and although I don't have have his gear or fingers or studio captured sound, you know, this thing does a pretty fair approximation of getting that real nice warm, fat, sweet sustain that he has. For some reason, when I use that TS-9 with the BD2 to get maximum crunch, I want to play more 80's metal type hair rock stuff. With this, I want to play artful, melodic lines.

This thing seems solid. I build (or try to) my own stompboxes, so I understand the parts pretty well and what's good and so on. This thing of course takes a while to build because the parts are not cheap. I don't need a backup for this, unless it gets stolen, but I can't see something really happening to it.

Okay, there seems to be a lot of whining about getting these pedals. It even says on the site that it takes a while to get them. Why do you think? They are probably made in Barber's garage or something. When I ordered mine, the site said a 6 week wait and when 6 weeks rolled around, the site said 8 weeks. Well, I got it in 8 weeks, and I felt like the rest of the whiners, because there were so many gigs gone that I wanted to use this on and I felt disappointed and so on. You have to remember, these things have become very popular (for a good reason), and supply is greatly outweighing demand. Don't let the fact that you have to wait for this pedal make you think that it affects the sweet tone that rolls out of it. I got mine in late February (it was a Christmas present from my wife), and had to gig every weekend with it before I could finally write a review for it here in June. Before you write a review, get over the fact that you had to wait like everyone else. These guys answered all of the email that I sent, and I called once (they are busy, don't bother them) and got prompt, friendly replies without sounding rushed or anything. There is no need to upgrade this thing, and if you decide to do that, go to the website. What other pedal builders do that? I give them a '10' for customer support, because they do what good customer support does. Order a transparent Porsche and see how long it takes. If you build your own pedals, you will understand this all.

You know, I give this pedal a '10'. I play in a rock band (classic and new stuff) on the weekends for clubs full of sorority chicks, a semi-touring gospel band, straight ahead and fusion during the week and some studio work. This works for it all. I really like Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Michael Schenker and my newest hero, Carl Verheyen (that guy is the final chapter in guitar playing!). I would like to get their sounds sometimes, and like I mentioned, it gets a nice Robben Ford type fat sustaining drive. If you want GNR or Nu Metal, look elsewhere (get a Tone Jam modded DS-1 ,good sound for this type of thing and good price). I've been playing for 20 years, lots of touring experience internationally and I own a lot of gear. I am really happy with this, I may try a mod when I decide I want something different out of it, but right now, I'm happy. Look at it this way, how much does an Ibanez TS-9 cost? Add a modification by Keeley or Analog Man or Kevin at Tone Jam, and you're looking as some bucks (or go to Tonepad.com and find out how to EASILY mod it yourself, thanks FP!). This thing is $99!! For what you get from this, it's well worth. Maybe the price makes up for the waiting. I don't think that I would change anything about this (like stated before, there are mods on the website), it does what it does extremely well. If you are into tone and sonic inspiration, this is for you.

Best Sound I ever had. Gibson 56er Historic, LuK Strat, Barber Direct Drive, Princton Reverb amp, Bogner Cube (Celestion Greenback). Nothing else.
Barber Direct Drive: Volume 3, Tone 4, Drive 2
You can control the soound perfectly with the Guitar Potis nothing else

I play bluesrock since 25 Years. I do not need anything else.
2 Guitars (Gibson Les Paul and Fender Strat Modell), Barber direkt drive, Princton Reverb amp and Celstion Greenback Speaker. This gives vou any sound you need to make this kind of music.

Getting great tones is a snap as it has a familiar Volume, Tone, Drive
layout. The only twist to that is the tone knob's pull function for added harmonics.

I'm mainly using the Direct Drive with a couple of other effects into a Fender Blues Junior. My main guitar is a Reverend Rocco(I've gotta do a review for the Rocco too...it's killer!) but I also have a nice Tele and a Reverend Slingshot. First off, I've gotta say that this is by far the quietest OD pedal I've ever heard. As far as tone, my idea of a great rig is a simple setup of Fender clean and Marshall dirty. IMHO, I'm as close now as I'll ever be with a small, simple rig. The Direct Drive sounds superb into my Reverend Hellhound as well but right now I don't need it's volume(church band-everyone else goes direct to P.A. including drummer). Ok, back to the tone. Warm, creamy,
liquidy, golden lead tones with sweet sustain and clarity that clean up VERY nicely when you dial down the volume on the guitar. This is probably not the OD for everyone however. It was designed to emulate EL34 output tubes(Marshall) and that's not for everyone. It's PERFECT for me though!

Seems extremely well made using quality parts but anything can fail. I'd probably wanna have a backup just in case.

Sent a couple of emails prior to purchase and got very prompt replies.

I play blues and a sorta blues/rock/jazz hybrid and have played for 30-35 years. I'd buy this again at twice the price! Great crunch tones
and killer blues. It just gives me such a sweet singing tone that my Reverend Drivetrain and Crowther Audio Hotcake are collecting dust. For MY needs, I can't imagine anything better.

3 knobs,Volume,Tone with pull switch for more harmonics,Drive;
easy to use,it takes a few minutes to find the right sound.

after testing a lot of stompboxes over 20 years and many of them were
very expensive I will stick with this box.It's quiet,the quality of
the sound is better than I expected.I A/B ed it with some of my
favourites,they ALL ended second place.I play a HUBER Orca with Tim
White pickups and use a ALLEN OLd Flame with KT66 and two Celestion
Century speakers,pure tube,no IC's.I can have a Peter Green sound,
be on the FREE ride and pull the tone and blow like Santana or Gary
Moore with tons of sustain.
For the price of $99,- any serious guitar player should have one.
If anyone complains a bad sound with the Direct Drive,something is
very wrong with his gear.

build like a tank;you can even change the chip without problems.

I didn`t need it yet;David Barber even has a mod section on his website.

I play since 40 years mostly rock and blues,sometimes rock`n roll for
fun.I went through tons of equipment-I wish I`d never sold them.
The Direct Drive replaces all other overdrives;if stolen,I would buy
it again the same day.

3 knobs. Vol/tone/drive. Easy.

Nice juicy boost, good sustain/drive pedal. Kinda noisy full on - duh. Using it in a pedal board w/Nobels Booster, DOD Compressor, Dan-O Tremelo & Rotary Speaker pedals, Boss Delay, DOD Slapback, Boss NS & tuner; MIM Strat, CIJ Jazzmaster, Dan-o baritone. And lighten up fellas - a steal for the money. Can do everything from Robben Ford juice to SRV sweat to Ramones grind.

Built Ford tough.

Haven't called - haven't had to.

I play surfabilly/cowpunk/severe blues/crime jazz.

Here's my combo (cut and paste):
http://www.dillengers.com

Here's a tip for the pull knob hassle: remove the knob (loosen set screw) and pull pot up into "harmonic boost mode"; put 2 or 3 flatwashers w/1/2" diameter opening over the stem; put knob back on & tighten set screw. I did that cause I like the boost mode a lot more and I leave it on all the time, that way I can't turn it off when I'm fooling with the controls with my feet (which I do all the time).

I'd get another if it got swiped.

Three knobs. Everybody has owned a lime green overdrive with three knobs (gain, tone, volume), so if anyone is left confused by the setup there isn't anything that can be done to help them.

Here is where I feel absolutely compelled to respond to some earlier posts. I have owned everything - Matchless Hotbox, several Klons, TS-808's, three Fulldrives, Sparkledrive, Rat, etc., etc., etc. I don't think it is fair to bash a $99 pedal for not sounding like a $350 pedal. Whoever gives this pedal a "1" because they expected so much more out of their $99 investment should get a grip on reality or stick with the boutique boxes. With that said, I A/B'ed the Direct Drive with a TS-9 reissue ($175) with a 'brown' mod (another $35) and to my ears, the DD is a better pedal at half the price. They sound different, but the harmonics, smoothness, and fullness of the DD is better. I am extremely impressed, and that isn't easy to do. IMHO this pedal is everything it is supposed to be (and better than many others on the market) at a screaming price, and you get true bypass to boot, which the TS-9 doesn't give you. If you are looking for Metallica, Pantera, etc. forget it. Won't get it here, but that's not what I wanted. If you want Robben Ford, it gets you a lot closer (before anyone reacts, I am well aware that this pedal won't give you a $10,000 Dumble amp for your $100). But it is very, very good. Try one out and see if it lights you up. And the previous reviewers that give this pedal a low rating are still disappointed, write me. I'm interested in buying a few more of these as backups....... But the way you have described it, you certainly won't be looking to get your full $99 investment back out of it, will you......

Looks like it is built like a tank. Don't like the knob used for the pull-compression (it is a little hard to grab hold of), but I can live with that in light of the tone.

Don't know.

Unbelievable value for the money! I play rock and blues, and it does exactly what I was looking for. If there is a better value out there, I would love to know what it is. I would probably have paid $150 for this one and not had any complaints. Not only would I replace it, but I have a few pedals that will be going on the market to make room for at least one more of these on my pedalboard.

Its a snap to get very good sounds. Its hard to get a bad sound, its just what you are looking for. I am not an "over the edge " guy, so I like the vo. at 1 (o'clock), the tone in the 9 to 12 range, and the drive in the 8 to 11 range.
Manual is one sheet- could be a bit more, but this keep the costs down, and we all benefit

Sound is great-very musical, very useful. The controls produce immediate results, and its dead quiet in the bypass mode, with no signal loss. The drive ranges from a mild overdrive to a high gain roar, with a lot in between. It could have more sustain in the low drive settings, however, but that is the nature of the beast. I compensate by using a compressor to remedy this, and it works fine

I' had it a day. and it blew out on me. However, sent it back to David , who fixed it free and fast, and now all is well.
Its built very well-sturdy, full metal box, nice tight wiring on the inside.
I'm powering it with a adaptor (negative tip ring only), as experience tells me batteries fail when you don't want them to, and this unit requires four screws to replace the battery-not the thing to do when you are playing in front of people.

Great support- see above. David Barber is a throwback to individual craftsmen who care what they do, and care that their customers are satisfied. I would buy another product in a minute fro Barber Electronics

I play rock, blues, etc.
I use a Tele, a PRS CE, a Heritage 535, all sound great.
I got this as the distortions in my POD2 weren't doing it for me. I run the DD into the POD, and use the POD for reverb, and other effects. and some compression.
I play through a original 65 Deluxe Reverb, and a Hot Rod Deluxe- both sound fine.
If lost or stolen, I'd get another.
I'd love to see David combine the Direct Drive with the Tone Press(compressor). That would be a pedal and a half!!!!

no problemo 3 knobs, turn em,

This a very high quality TS9 like pedal with more distortion and better harmonics. My TS9 is not very inspiring, basically dull and lifeless. The DD is a much clearer, fuller, more dynamic with much better harmonics that a stock TS9 re-issue.

This pedal works great with my tube amp and my SS amp. Also works equally well with single coils and HB's.

No complaints! Very rich and full sounding pedal.

No problems

Don't know

Great value when comparing to the TS9 type OD's on the market. For $99 you can't go wrong.

All manufactures could learn something from Barber. Build a quality pedal and sell it at a resonable price. Not everyone can afford $200 for one pedal.

Some have given this pedal low ratings for sound quality, I really don't know how, I have been playing for 20+ years and can find no fault with the DD. I can only guess that anyone giving it a low rating was using weak batteries or bad power, this is one thing I did notice. When using the pedal with a weak battery the sound was very fuzzy.

Good pedal and a great price. Thanks Dave!

simple enough, Don't like the push pull thing for the fat harmonics on the tone control. But no real complaints

I have a very good ts9 with the 808 mods and many other mods I have done myself. I run both pedals side by side into a Fender Hotrod Deville 4x10. I really do like the sound of the DD, however I have to admit that it is very TS9 like. There is just enough difference in the overall quality of the sound to make it stand out, at least to me. The DD is a smoother, with more harmonics, there are some sweet spots with this pedal that I just can't get with my TS9, and BTW my TS9 has the second harmonic mod, which should make it even closer to the DD. So I would think that the DD would stand out even better when comparing to a stock TS9.

One thing I did discover is the DD is very sensitive to low power, battery or other. So I would make sure that you have a fresh quality battery. This would lead me to belive that if you ran the DD at 18Vdc you should hear even more of a difference in sound making the pedal all that much smoother, but this is purly speculation.

I can't understand the 1 ratings for sound? This is a high quality pedal designed by a guy who knows what he is doing. Is it TS9 like, yes but this is not a bad thing. It is more transparent that the TS9 with better harmonics and less mid hump, however I think the compression is about the same.

I love the way this pedal sounds in the mix, the harmonics are what make it stand out. It has this sweet singing voice that just isn't the same as my TS9, for cording with both single coils and humbuckers it works well.

Should be fine, but some of the lettering is falling off?

Been playing 20 years,
Currently there is a lot of hipe around this pedal, and for good reason. It is inexpensive and it sounds great, making this pedal a bargain when compared to the competition.

If you own a TS9, save your money and get it modded, it will be 90% of what the DD is. If you don't and are looking for a great OD this is one pedal that you should definitely consider.

As other reviewers said, very straight forward. 3 knobs and a push/pull knob for emphasized 2nd harmonics. I've heard complaints about the tone knob not having a broad enough sweep, but I think the sweep is just fine.

Through my goldtone and my gibson lp classic, the direct drive sounds great. I find the mids are emphasized a bit, but it doesn't bother me at all, especially when I'm playing with the band. It helps me cut through a little. It certainly isn't as big of a mid hump as a tubescreamer. I don't think this pedal sounds artifical or buzzy at all. To me and my friends this pedal sounds like an amp that's been fronted really hard. I use it a higher voltage which changes the tonal characteristics a little. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it seems to make it sound fuller.

David Barber seems to have made this pretty well. I don't expect any problems.

I e-mailed David Barber about running the direct drive at a higher voltage and he responded the next day. Good enough for me.

I'm not really sure how anyone can think this sounds like they're playing through a telephone. Maybe this pedal is pretty setup sensitive, but through my rig it sounds fantastic. The direct drive took the place of a voodoo labs sparkle drive, which was also a pretty good pedal, but the direct drive has just so many more sweet spots. It seems like it would be a pretty good clean boost as well. Not as transparent as a Klon, but for $99 it can hold its own in that area. I really like the tones I get out of this box. If I lost this, I'd definately find a way to get another...I hate that 5-6 week backorder though.

Easy to use, not so easy to get a decent sound out of.

Very disappointing. You would think that a 6-8 week wait would be for something grand, but this is like playing through a transistor radio with a 2" speaker. Any more mid-range honk and it would be a goose. No highs or lows. I A/Bed it with my Route 66 and my TS-10, plus my new ZOOM PD-01. They all blew it away. The TS-10 was embarassingly better. Another reviewer said it was like playing through a telephone. Good call (no pun intended!). Certainly no Marshall roar here, more like the Nashville ultra mid-range honk.

Built like a tank. Beautiful handwired workmanship. For what, I don't know. Huge true-bypass switch. It will last somebody a long time.

Called while looking for one. barber told me they were backed-up two months and he was hiring more pepole to keep up with the demand. this further fueled my desire to get one. They seem very nice and eager to please. Sorry for the dis.

I am selling it. Keeping my TS-10 and Route 66, plus I got a ZOOM PD-01 and Hyper Lead on closeout. These are KILLER pedals. I fell victim to the Guitar Player magazine review hype and backorder situation on the Direct Drive. It HAD to be good. I have been very disappointed. For me, it was unusable.

3 nobs with a pull out boost, very easy to use as discribed by others

I am using the direct drive with a american standard strat. with fralin pick-ups into either a Budda Superdirve 30 or a Top Hat Club Royal. The DD is very much like a tube screamer with more gain and harmonics. The pedal pruduces a big fat round sound, however it is very, very dark. I'm a little disapointed by this procuct. The tone control is no help in dialing out the large mid-range hump. On the bright side the pedal seems to be built well and is reaonable for the quality.

Seems dependable, built well but I've only had it a month.

They were responsive in answering questions. They got the pedal to me a week early.

I play primarily blues and rock. I've been playing about 8 years. There are several products on the market that cover ground similar to the DD. There are several effects that I'm familiar with that I feel are superior (in no particular order)Tonebone Classic, Klon, Sparkle Drive, Fulldrive 2. If lost or stolen I wouldn't re-purchase. It's not a bad distortion effect (at $100) just not a great one. I really don't get the Guitar Player review on this thing.

Pretty easy, but, if you ignore the manual like I did, it takes a while to figure out. Many cool and authentic-sounding settings. This pedal has a lot going on. Shoulda read the manual first!

Too many sounds to cover, but what a useful pedal. The best tones are Marshall-like, nice and creamy, a surprisingly accurate Dumble, a nice overdriven Fender, a TS-killer for sure, and a beats-all clean drive. This is much more of an overdrive than a distortion pedal. Very sweet and smooth. Natural as can be. Between my Two Rock Custom and the Direct Drive with fat harmonics engaged through a loud Fender Vibrolux, it's a dead heat for the Dumble tone. This is the most capable pedal I've heard. This pedal can bark, bite, growl, and howl. Bass is full, mids are sweet and pronounced, highs are smooth, not rough-edged.

I have owned the Direct Drive for 4 months. Haven't even replaced the battery, but looked inside. It's immaculate and solid.

David Barber is the best. He talked me through my tone questions and guaranteed delivery by a specified date. Also promised to take back the pedal (unharmed) if it didn't do what he said it would. 10 is not high enough.

One of my favorite settings has to be the clean drive. It is so pure and devoid of noise. Sweet as can be. I wish the pedal came with 2 channels for rhythm/lead and I would like it if he moved the on light so I could see it better, but I'm not complaining. I can tell when it's on.

I own so many pedals now, maybe 40 - yes, a gear freak. Half are overdrives. The Direct Drive doesn't do everything, but it almost does - it does much more than any 3 overdrives put together. For Marshall, Tubescreamer, and Dumble tones, it kills the 3 Menatones and the Keeley I once had which were supposed to be improved direct-knock-offs! For $99, a lot of faux-boutique pedal builders should be looking at themselves in the mirror. The best overdrive pedal ever at a price that is 1/3 of inferior pedals. Yes, I'm diggin' it!

A no brainer! Three knobs, volume, tone, and drive. One pull pot on the tone knob for the "Fat Harmonics mode," true bypass, in , out, footswitch, and away you go.

Whoa! Wait! What happened! Beautiful looking pedal, SO easy to use, it just has to sound GREAT. Right? WRONG!!! Total waste of $99.00 plus shipping. A Tubescreamer eater? NOT!!! A reissue TS-9 with no mods sounds better than this pedal. I bought this pedal to augment my Custom Vibrolux Reverb and my soon to be delivered 64 Vibroverb Custom. I play an American Vintage 62 Strat and I use George L's for cables. When I plugged into this pedal and turned it on, my sound went from this gorgeous "on the edge" Fender clean with a great punchy bass and pristine sparkling highs, to this god awful "crunchy" bass WITH ABOUT 40db OF THE ORIGINAL BASS CUT OFF, (this pedal is NOT supposed to do that but it does it BIG TIME!), and these DARK sounding highs with NO sparkle or shimmer what so ever. I had the tone knob turned all the way up and it was still VERY dark! Basically, all that was left were the mids, and even they sounded like crap. Without a doubt this is the most BOXY sounding pedal I have ever used. Pull pot for "Fat Harmonics" to sound like a certain California boutique amp? Robben Ford Tone? Dare we say the word Dumble? Well I'll tell you what. I owned a K&M Custom and a Two-Rock Opal, both designed after the aforementioned amp, and this pedal does not sound anything like THAT amp, or the clones that I owned. This pedal is JUNK! Plain and simple.

Looks well made, but I'm not going to play it anymore so frankly I don't really care.

Well let's see. Dave answered all my e-mails VERY promply when I was initially inquiring about this pedal and ultimatley ordering it, but now that I have sent him 2 e-mails about my concerns, and the possibility of getting the pedal "modded," I haven't heard a peep out of him in over a week.

Nice!!

If you like your ORIGINAL tone and want a pedal to augment that tone, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE USING A BLACKFACE FENDER AMP, look elsewhere! Do not buy this pedal!! It will impose it's own BOXY tone over top of your tone, and it will make your original tone sound like crap. Editor's Pick in Guitar Player Magazine?? That's funny. No, actually that's very sad, because I know for a fact that I am not the only one that was sucked in by the hype of this pedal, and is now just as disapointed as I am.

I think you get the idea

First off let me say that I really like this pedal. I has great chord definition, can go from very mild OD to supersaturated distortion. Most of the sounds are great and are even better with the Fat Harmonics switch pulled out.

BUT!
The tone of this pedal is squarely in the TS9 camp. Now I'm comparing it to a TS9DX that I have. My TS9 is modded for more distortion, asymmetric clipping, more base and the 808 mod. So it is a good sounding pedal. But the thing that really ticks me off is that before I purchased this pedal I asked Barber and many others the same thing. How does it compair to the TS9 and 808. Not one person told me that this pedal is just a better TS9 or slightly better 808 (modded TS9).

If it sounds like I'm disapointed in the pedal, I'm not, I really do like this pedal. I like it more than my TS9DX, not by much mind you, its just a little better. I would never have made this purchase had I known what I know now.

Areas where the DD is better - or not
better harmonics but you really need to listen
sounds better in the mix for some reason
definitly is a smoother pedal
better string clarity
still has compression like my TS9
still has the mid hump like my TS9
same base as my TS9 but cleaner and smoother
same level of distortion as my TS9

Areas of concern,
The tone response is not that great, moving the tone control from 0 to full doesn't change the tone that much. With the drive at 0 the tone control does almost nothing at all. The tone control works better the more drive you apply. I read the same thing at Steelbender.com.

I will give this pedal a 10 as I feel it is a great pedal.

The over all construction and workmanship is very good. Some of the lettering is falling off already so I don't think it will stay on long.

This is a hand made pedal made in a small place, each one is hand assembled and signed by the builder.

Only a 9 because of the letters falling off the first time I used it!

Great, Dave answered my emails. They answer the phone. However you need to separate the hipe from the reality. So take some of what they say with a grain of salt.

I've been playing for over 20 years. I own Fender tube amps and Line6 PODs. The pedal works equally well through both using my Strat or my Godin.

This is a great value. If you don't own a TS9 I would pick the Direct Drive as the clear winner. If you do own a TS9 then I would pay someone or make the mods my self, thats what I did.

99 bucks for a pedal of this quality is a great deal. The TS9 is the same price right now. As stated the DD is a better pedal in every way to an unmodded TS9.

Only 3 knobs - all of which are self-explanatory. About as simple as you can make it.

I use this with a Fender Super Reverb RI and vintage Strats/Teles as well as a PRS Custom 24. For bigger halls, I'll substitute the SR with a 72 Marshall Mark II Plexi Super Lead (usually control with the guitar volume). As you can probably imagine, the latter combination can get REALLY loud !

I bought this pedal because I was looking for something that will fatten my Strats & Teles without destroying their natural sound (particularly the bridge pickups). I'm primarily a devotee of the Fender blackface amp tones but sometimes need the Marshall roar and I didn't want to have to lug the plexi around to get it. This pedal does that in spades ! The neck PU screams & soars while the bridge one is very full and tight (i.e. Hendrix-esque). I'm not a big humbucker user, but my PRS sings like a bird. I actually like this pedal so much, I don't use any other OD pedal on top of it like a lot of people do. Just a little bit of compression in front of it from his Tone Press compressor. It cleans up beautifully when you roll back your guitar's volume so you can get clean tones as needed. I run my SR volume at about 4 1/2 and the DD settings as follows:

Level: 11 o'clock.
Tone: 2 o'clock (pulled out for fat boost)
Drive: 1-2 o'clock

On the Marshall, I back the level & drive down to about 9 o'clock & 10 o'clock respectively.

I've been playing for 25 years and used a lot of the well-known OD pedals (Fulltone, VoodooLabs, Ibanez TS-9 and TS-808). The only one I still have is the VL which is a decent pedal. But the DD still wins out.

I've had it for 6 months and used it on about 2-3 dozen gigs in that time with NO problems. I pretty much leave it on all night. Seems pretty well-built. I have a second unit on order as a back-up so I guess that tells you my feelings on trying to play without one !

Based on my experience thus far, I'll give it a 10 for reliability.

I've had several conversations & emails with Dave and he always responds promptly & politely. Unlike a certain other pedal manufacturer in CA whose name is on his products, he never cops an attitude or makes you feel like you're wasting his time (even though I know things are just crazy for him). He's always been helpful and answered my questions patiently. The man obviously loves his work !

I play a combination of current & classic rock with the occasional blues/country tune. This pedal works well with all styles. Its very versatile and doesn't get in the way of the guitar's sound at all. The price speaks for itself so the value is terrific.

I hate to say I'll never need another OD pedal but if there's ever one I could feel that way about, this is it.

Executive Summary: Mediocre tone that doesn't live up to the hype.

Volume, drive and tone. The tone knob pulls out to change the sound.
Very simple platform.

I don't understand all the people who rave about this pedal. I've been playing for years and tried 'em all. The sound rating is a 9.7 (before this review), so somebody must be hearing something. I had high expectations. I plugged in a Paul with Rio Grande pickups and a late 70s Marshall. Hard to go wrong with that rig. Before I bought it, I called Barber Electronics and told them I wanted something to make the Les Paul stand out on solos. They told me that's what it would do.

No. The tone is a bit like playing your guitar through a telephone; it shaves off the bass and highs and leaves only the midrange. It sounds like cardboard. It makes the Paul and JMP Marshall sound cheap. It does have lots of dynamics, very little compression, but that's the only thing to like about it. Pulling up the tone pot makes it sound more transistory, particularly with chords. With the tone pot pulled out, fifths are gritchy and solid-state sounding. There's no real Texas Tone here as in early ZZ Top. True, it only costs $99 plus shipping, but there are Boss pedals that sound way better for even less money. Any quality Overdrive pedal, Fulldrive 2, Maxon OD-808, Carl Martin, etc. will dust the Direct Drive's britches. A TS-9 reissue sounds better. I hate to beat up on it, but it was a big disappointment.

There's a setting in the manual called "Tube Screamer Eater." Well, at this or any other setting, my 808 ate the Direct Drive. And a Fulldrive is in a whole 'nother orbit from this thing. It doesn't sound bad, just Mediocre. I would not use this pedal in front of an audience.

Construction appears to be on a par with Fulltone. There's a fiberglass circuit board stuck firmly to the case, a 3-pole switch for true-bypass with LED, excellent soldering, high quality pots and jacks. Probably last years.

They'll answer phone calls. They talked for a while about it with me. Too bad the pedal didn't live up to the claims.

Considering only the quality of build, this is the best thing out there for $111. It appears to be aimed at blues and rock players like me. The tone is not bad, it's just average, and there are cheaper pedals that sound better (Boss SD-1, for instance). I understand that it's half the cost of a Fulldrive, but ultimately, it's about tone, not saving a hundred bucks. It also puts out about half the tone of the Fulldrive, so I reckon you get what you pay for. I haven't heard any other Barber products, but I'm now skeptical. Pass on this one and save up for a Fulldrive, the new one with the flatmids/vintage switch.

Bottom Line: Well made, but tones are only average at best. I'll either trade it or send it back for a refund.

This is simplicity itself to use...the standard volume, tone, drive controls; pulling up on the tone control gets a thicker, juicier, more harmonically rich overdrive.

So far I've used a '67 and a newer Strat--one with a Seymour Duncan Little '59 humbucking pickup in the bridge--as well as a friend's Epiphone semi hollow body with humbuckers--played through a Fender Dual Showman Reverb head and a Bandmaster 2-12 horizontal bottom with Jensen re-issue C-12N speakers. (These speakers are superb, by the way.)

It is now my favorite distortion pedal by far, and I've owned a boatload...Mesa V-Twin (which I still have as it does great supersaturated lead sounds and is a versatile preamp), MXR Distortion+, MXR Distortion II (never liked that one), Boss OD-1, Tube Driver, Hughes and Kettner Cream Machine, Marshall Drivemaster, Univox Super Fuzz, Fender Blender, Mosrite Fuzz-Rite, Fuzz Face and others I can't remember.

The pedal, as others have remarked, is unusually quiet for a distortion pedal.

The pedal sounds superb, very "natural," smooth, even distortion with excellent response and dynamics--it keeps the initial attack of the guitar, unlike other pedals that squash the initial attack. This aspect alone makes it superior to many others I've tried.

It really is quite natural-sounding, as noted, as opposed to pedals that sound more "canned," fuzzy and artificial and seem to proclaim: "I'm a pedal! I sound fake!" (If you're a veteran player, I think you know what I mean.) Note: this natural quality comes through much more when the amp is turned up to a moderate or high, as opposed to a low, level.

I see that someone criticized its lack of bass response. I just don't hear this in my setup. Although, I tend not to like a heavy "thunk" in my lead sound...I turn the bass down to around "3" on my amp because I'd rather hear more midrange, and present, but not overbearing, highs.

I have gone through tons of pedals and this is by far the best sound I've gotten yet...this quality comes through on tape as well as live--easily heard. It really does sound extremely close to a good overdriven tube amp, but more controllable. The distortion cleans up nicely when you back off on the volume control, in both normal and "hot" (pull boost) mode--making it extremely useful for live performance--this is how I like to control my rhythm/lead volume and tone. Although I don't think any pedal is "perfect," I'm giving it a 10 because it does just what David Barber said it would...and it's exactly what I need in my rig!

This pedal also interacts extremely well with my other pedals (I mostly use an original Cry Baby wah, Boss CE-2 chorus, Digi-Tech Two Second Delay, Fuzz Face and Mesa Boogie V-Twin).

I've only had it about a month. I must note the beautiful build quality--the components are soldered like little jewels and the workmanship is impeccable. No opinion as to long-term reliability yet 'cause I haven't had it long enough, but I'm well familiar with electronics (having worked in the industry for decades) and it appears to me that this is a solid unit that should cause no problems. My only incredibly minor quibble is that the battery rattles around a bit inside the enclosure...I stuck a piece of foam in the inside next to the battery to keep it in place.

David Barber has been terrific to deal with every step of the way.

I mostly play classic rock. The pedal an excellent match for what I do, giving me a rich, classic overdrive tone that has excellent attack, harmonics, tone, sustain and an even decay.

I've been playing for 35+ years.

Other guitar gear includes: Les Paul, Tele and Martin hollow body electric guitars; Fender Princeton Reverb, Fender Bandmaster and a few funky garage sale amps; the pedals listed above plus others including an MXR Phase 90, MXR Dyna Comp, Boss PH-1R phaser, and more.

I would buy another in a second if it was lost.

What I love about it: the sound! There's nothing I dislike about it. Favorite feature: the sound!

I chose this pedal based on the recent review in Guitar Player and the positive comments on Harmony Central. Although I like the sound of my V-Twin, I was looking for an alternative, less compressed, more classic rock-type overdrive sound, and I took a chance on the Direct Drive without hearing it (something I'd never done before), based on the reviews and a conversation with David Barber. I was also considering products like the Tonebones, various Fulltones, the Maxon Distortion Master and the like. However, now that I've gotten the Direct Drive, I feel zero need to look any further and am more satisfied with my lead sound than I have been in literally decades. I think the Direct Drive is a genuine bargain at $99.

The one nice additional feature it could have, as others have noted, is a footswitch to engage the boosted harmonics mode, rather than the pull-up tone knob. However, as others have also noted, that would undoubtedly add to the price (probably significantly considering the high quality of the switch).

Both overdrive modes are so good on this pedal that my biggest "problem" has been trying to decide which setting I like better.

It most definitely helps me to make music. The sound is inspiring and makes me want to play more. That's what it's all about!

1, 2, 3. Easy as pie. Instructive manual that gives good setting ideas.

Guitars: LP, ES-335, Strat. Amps: Fender Tweed, Marshall Silver Jubilee. Pedal is surprisingly quiet for this amount of distortion capability. Wide range of overdrive tones. Crunch, cream, sting, w/singing leads, even a nice clean-drive setting. Full bass and mids - very balanced pedal. Versatile beyond my expectation. Too good to be true. Marshall, Tweed OD, Dumble....what doesn't it do?!

Nicely built, inside and out. Solid. No stickers to peel off!

N/A Took 6 weeks to arrive. I feel lucky.

14 years playing experience - blues and blue-based rock. I prefer this pedal over all of my other overdrive pedals - that includes Fulldrive, Klon, Ibanez, Boss. My pedal board just got smaller by 3 pedals. What a value! While no pedal can do it all, this pedal does more for less. I wish it had 2 channels, but for $99, that's dreaming. Would replace in a heartbeat. Worth the wait.

Very easy. Three knobs, one of which is a push/pull. The "manual" was very helpful also

And now the bubble bursts...

;-)

I don't like it. I really expected something different when I bought it. To me, the Direct Drive sounds like a Tubescreamer with more gain and a "fat" switch. Not a crappy new Tubescreamer, but a Keeley.

This pedal, to my ears, sounds a *lot* like a keeley modded TS9 with perhaps about 15% more gain and a "fat" switch to allow you to get a more rounded sound.

The mids are emphasized. The tone control is very usuable and musical. There's plenty of volume to use as a clean boost, and the "fat" switch adds a nice roundness to the attack.

I don't like the bass response. I noticed the depth of my bass tones dissapeared w/ this pedal. I also don't like the emphasized mids.

If you're looking for a great TS type pedal w/ more versatility and less money than a boutique mod, this is your ticket.

Seems very reliable. The switching feels very sturdy and smooth as well.

They were very helpful on the phone when I placed the order. Though, the sound he described to me and what this pedal does aren't anywhere *near* close.

I've used a lot of ODs. This is a very good TSish unit if that's the sound you like. Honestly, I'd take this over the Keeley modded TS9 I used to have. Cheaper, better sound, and more versatility.

But, I hate the bass loss and mid hump.

My favorite OD so far is a Reverend Drivetrain. It adds grit, preserves your bass, and doesn't add any weird mid humps to your sound. Basically, it makes your guitar sound exactly like it did clean, only with grit.

I mentioned this to Barber when ordering the Direct Drive and asked how he would compare it to the Reverend. He said the Reverend was more of a TS clone and that the Direct Drive would preserve the bass sound better and not add a mid hump. It turns out to be the complete opposite!

It is easy to great sounds of this pedal, the Guitar Player review is right on the money when it comes to this pedal. I was able to get cool sounds with a variety of settings dialed in.

The tone is the best of any overdrive pedal I have played. The harmonics mode when you pull out the tone knob is great. Chords ring out smooth and clear at high drive settings. It can get really punchy if you want it to. A wide variety of top-quality overdriven sounds, it killed with a Fender Princeton, THD UniValve, and Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10. Nice as a clean boost, mild boost, medium OD, heavy OD, very versatile with the spectrum of Overdriven guitar sound. Hi-Fi sound.

I smiled when I opened it, the build quality is top-notch. Very nicely done. Boutique quality at a reasonable price.

Don't know.

This is the best overdrive I've played, doesn't get any better than this in my experience. Outstanding. Better overdrive sound and more versatile than any TS9 variation I've come across. This pedal totally kills.

it took no time at all to get a great tone, very straight forward pedal.

sound quality is fantastic,I play a PRS(ce-22)guitar through a fender deluxe reverb 22watt tube amp. I've tried fulltone fulldrive 2,boss o.d.-3,marshall overdrive 2,Ibanez Is-9. I ended up selling all of them.

only had it a short time but , have heard good things about it.

E-mailed dave 2 times with questions and he got right back with me.

what a deal at this price !!!! the only thing that would make it better would be if he sold a dual direct drive pedal so you could have 2 different settings set up,but i would excpect the price to go up as well, with something like that.

this is one of the easiest plug n play pedals ive ever owned. about the only thing that is not obvious is the pull-tone switch to add harmonics...this is in the manual.The manual is simple with some sample settings...but one word of advice...play with it youself! you will find your "tone" no problem!!

ok, i know harmony central says it will not print glowing reviews....well sorry folks at HC; this is the real deal. I could get into detail about my setup and everything, but ive only played this pedal for one hour through the clean channel of a cheapo 15 watt crate with my washburn p2(not my best guitar by any means...i have prs and ernie balls). the second i clicked this on, i started playing "steppin out". the setting that happened to be on it at the time had that same combo sound as clapton on the blues breakers album!!! on this little piece of crap crate nonetheless. i have been playing for eighteen years and this little one hour test has me sold.cant wait to throw this in my regular rig of an ada preamp into a power amp into two cabinets. I mean the versatility!!!! this does sound great straight in clean channel....with a little dirt on the front of the amp it sounds stellar!!!!(did i mention this was a little 15 watt crate???!!!)sounds surprisingly tube-ey...if all of these so called amp"modelers" used this tone as their base tone, they would all sound immensely better. digitech?? you should give dave a call!!! line 6? the same. barber is definitely on to something here.i whack out a chord and its balls out!! and i hear every note in the chord!! i can even play the infamous E7#9 hendrix chord with exceptional clarity! after this short test i can already attest that clapton(vintage),reverend billy g,and eric johnson(add alittle echo, which i did on the crate, forcing me into a few bars of cliffs of dover)among others are living somewhere in this box. anyone who cant find a tone should find their own in their fingers before plugging into any amplifier.im kicking the tubescreamer out of the pedalboard!!

built pretty rugged...ive only had it for a day. i have to vote no opinion

i dealt with dave checking the status of my order.I ended up in a 10-15 conversation about his company(which i initiated) he dealt all of my questions in a very friendly manner even though he is a busy man "he's getting swamped!" if this is any indication how he behaves with customer problems i would give it a 10 but i cannot respond with a rating at this time honestly...i will update this in the future as needed.They have a great website though where he shows you how to "mod" the pedal with minor soldering or op-amp changes....how may companies encourage you to tinker with the product? this is awesome!!!

i play modern rock, classic rock, some metal, jazz, you name it i play it(and yes i think you could play metal with this pedal also...maybe not the oversaturated mud you hear on the radio. but you could definitely play ozzy)...ive been playing for 18 years..if this were stolen or lost i would order three more from dave so i wouldnt have as long a wait if it happened again!!!. theres just one minor nitpick i have though; there is no easily accessible battery compatment...you have to pull all four screws off...again this is just a nitpick....AT THE PRICE THIS IS A HUUUUUUUUUUGGEEEEEE VALUE!

Very easy. Comes with a nice one page manual with some sample settings.

My setup: Heritage 150CM w/Duncan Antiquities, Barber Direct Drive, Fulltone Fat Boost, Holy Grail Reverb into a modifed Marshall JTM45 reissue with KT66's. This pedal is VERY quiet, noiseless switching. The effect is very amp like, it just seems to blend right in with my existing tone and add some more "brown" to the sound. I can definitely obtain the sounds that I desire with this pedal. Tones like Duane, Billy Gibbons, Early Clapton, even some smooth BB King or Mike Bloomfield tones are possible with this magic little box. The greatest thing is that it doesn't suck tone when its turned off, thanks to true bypass

I think so. This is however my second Direct Drive, my first one mysteriously "died" when I loned it to a friend for a blues gig. He stepped on the switch and nothing came on. However Dave Barber to the rescue. I really think my first one could've just had a bad switch or some other small fault, no problems at all with the second one, hey any product out there will have one bad apple.

I dealt with David after my first Direct Drive died, and he was very apologetic and ask me to describe the problem, he said if you have a good tech to take it to him and have him check the switch, so I did. Steve, my tech, said the switch was fine, so I called Dave back. Dave told me to send the pedal back to the dealer, Wildwood Guitars and he would send me a replacement pedal in the mail Priority Express at no charge to me. 2 Days later I had a brand new Direct Drive. Dave and Wildwood were a pleasure to do business with, and Dave actually pulled someone else's Direct Drive just so I could have a replacement in a hurry. So if I have any other problems in the future, I know Dave will provide assistance, as he stands by his products 100%. Great customer service!

I primarily play blues, and this pedal has really taken my tone to new levels. I really owe a lot of tone to how the Barber Direct Drive and JTM45 react with each other, they are incredibly dynamic. I love the fact that this pedal reacts like an amplifier in the fact that it responds to your pick attack. I compared this to my other overdrives (Route 66, TS9 modded, old DOD 250, Marshall Bluesbreaker, Boss Bluesdriver) and I ended up selling them all, as this thing covered all that they do. My ONLY complaint is that I wished the boost function was a button instead of a push pull knob, but hey for $99+ shipping and the kind of customer service that Dave provides, this pedal is a steal and I'll deal with the push pull knob.

three knobs. it took me less than a minute to find the sound i was looking for.

i am using this with an '89 strat or an '89 tele w/bardens into a RI marshall super lead 100 (plexi) with 4 greenbacks. i set the amp pretty dirty, a fair amount of amp overdrive on my clean sound. this pedal is silent. i use it to push the amp and it's amazing. i'm ritchie blackmore. articulate, round, responsive...it doesn't play like a pedal.my favorite part is my tone doesn't change when i turn it on. the bass is even, the mids don't bark, and the treble doesn't screech. it's like plugging into a hotter amp.

i have no backup for this pedal. i have an early one and i've been using it for months with no problems. it had a drink spilled on it once. built like a tank.

dave went out of his way to accomodate me. very friendly, very very helpful.

if this were stolen of lost i would definitely replace it. i use this and dave's new compressor pedal the tone press and that's it. this pedal has become very important to me. and the price? please...

Simple. 3 knobs with a push-pull tone knob for extra midrange.

Les Paul Jr. & Tele thru a Matchless Spitfire. Very quiet, noiseless switching. I barely ever turn the Drive control past the minimum as I'm just looking for a little extra crunch from an overdrive pedal. At this setting, it does a wonderful job of giving the Matchless the illusion of sounding louder without actually being louder. None of the cheesy sounding fuzziness that a TS9 gives. I was surprised at how well this pedal fattened my thin-sounding MIM Tele - it brought it to near-humbucker thickness. I haven't tried it live, but I expect it to sound great. I was able to A/B it with a VooDoo Labs Sparkle Drive (also a great pedal), and it was a much thicker, meatier, more natural and less fuzzy overdrive.

Very Sturdy.

I asked if it would be ready by the New Year. David emailed back the same day and said he'd try his best. It arrived 16 days early! Nice guy, fine product.

Definitely the most useful overdrive I've ever owned. I really still do like the Sparkle Drive, but the Direct Drive has that extra midrange that really pushes an amp nicely, and I think it will prove to be a better pedal for live use for my purposes.

Easy. Every setting works wonders. Manual is right on target.

Fender, Carr and Marshall amps. Fender, McInturff and Baker guitars. Very noise-free pedal, transparent, tru-bypass. Effects the DD is capable of are: Marshall classic, OD Fender-style, tube scream and, yes, RF. Just a great way to overdrive w/out too much distortion.

Ten so far.

The customer service world needs to study this guy and clone him.

I play classic rock, blues and fusion. This pedal is ideal for each of these styles and more.

Been playing for 16 years. Own Fulltone, Teese, Z-Vex, RX, Voodoo Labs, Line 6, Arbiter, Ibanez, and Barber effects.

Would seek immediate replacement if L or S.

Just bought it based on reviews. They were right - and so was the price!

Great sounds right out of the box. Barber's manual gives some sample settings which are fine for starters.

Into a Rivera R-55 this is the quietest overdrive unit I've ever heard. I use this with the tone control pulled out, and don't find much difference in gain from the 3/4s to full on gain settings. Very clean and articulate, and cuts through very well in the mix. Humbuckers sing and snarl, and strat type guitars get a little more of a Hendrixy kind of vibe. Maintains the guitar's character very well.

Appears very reliable, but then again I'm VERY gentle with my gear.n

In a previous encounter, purchasing a used 4 knob Burn Unit, Barber returned an email within an hour. On a Saturday.

Cover tunes and very occasional jazz fusion.I've been playing for 30 years now and have owned dozens of overdrive units; I also used amp only distortion for over a decade with a Mesa Mark III and a Budda Super Drive. Right now I also have a pair of Fulldrive IIs and a Reverend Drivetrain, along with a DOD 250, Morley JD10, and a mid '80s Rat. If this were stolen or lost I'd replace. Barber is working on some sort of 2 switch upgrade, so this may easily challenge the Fulldrive as a great two channel distortion once that happens. Right now in conjunction with the Drivetrain I can do anything I can with the Fulldrive. The Barber is clearer and more articulate than the FDII, far better than the Zinky True Grit. Far more natural sounding than the Bixonic pedals, far higher gain than the Mr Ed. If I'd been more patient I would have waited for the two button version, but this is fine. A very civilized pedal.

Relatively easy to get the sounds I'm looking for, although the pedal does require some tweaking depending on the guitar/amp, but that's to be expected. Very simple 3-knob setup with a pull-up on the tone knob for "fat harmonics"--excellent feature. There are many different sounds this pedal is capable of, and it covers a wide range of OD applications extremely well. The included one-page manual is very useful.

I use the Direct Drive with a few different combinations of guitars and amps. The best results I've gotten have been with a PRS McCarty and a Dr. Z Maz 18 Jr. amp for full-on high-quality plexi crank. I also use this pedal in more of a TS-808 role with a Fender Tele and a Rivera amp (and methinks it sounds better than any TS-type pedal I've owned, and I've had a lot of 'em). I almost always use the Fat Harmonics function--really adds to the "juicyness" of the pedal. This is perhaps the quietest OD pedal I've ever used, even when the gain is cranked a bit. And it doesn't feel like a pedal, either--just sounds and feels like you're plugged into the amp, the way it should be! No annoying TS mid-hump here, although I sometimes detect a slight drop in bass freq when the pedal is engaged, but it's VERY minor and doesn't really detract from the resulting blissful tones. Cleans up well when ya roll off the volume knob on yer guitar, and works well in conjunction with other pedals of all kinds.


My other main OD is a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, but this thing has gobs more useful gain and seems a bit more flexible, even without the FD2's Boost function. However, some of the FD2's sweet spots that I've grown accustomed to are somewhat elusive with the Direct Drive...but that still hasn't stopped the Direct Drive from becoming the main OD on my board. Very organic and open sounding, lots of subtleties: the amp and guitar/pickups still retain their characteristics even at the higher gain settings. This thing rules!

Have been gigging with it steadily for over a month now, and it shows zero signs of wear/tear. Rugged housing, top-notch components...this thing will last a good, long time. Eventually, switches do end up breaking on all effects. This thing is about as bulletproof as we could hope for.

David Barber actually answers the phone! I ordered this puppy directly from him...took less than a week turnaround time, but that was at the end of August I think, before the DD started going out to retailers and stuff. Still, he spent a considerable amount of time yammering with me about overdrives, my preferences, etc. It was educational and entertaining, he's just a gas to talk to. He also answered several of my emails, all within under 12 hours. I definitely wouldn't want to waste his time with piddlin' questions over the phone, but if anything ever went wrong with this pedal I would not hesitate to give him a shout. All I can say is this: Order with confidence, the dude is righteous and on top of his game, and totally gets off on getting his products perfect for us hard-to-please types.

I play old-school rock, blues, funk, and jamband-type stuff with several different bands, and I use different combinations of axes, amps, and effects depending on the gig--so far, I've been able to tweak this pedal for the individual settings appropriate to each gig, with excellent results. I've been playing live for over 20 years and have been through all kinds of gear--let's suffice it to say that if this pedal had arrived several years ago I probably could've saved some real $$$$! Amazing value for the money, definitely best overdrive bang for the buck right now, especially considering the sound quality, component quality, etc. Barber could easily charge substantially more for this puppy, so it's cool that he's pricing it within reach of most us working guitarmongers. Again, it's not really a TS clone, but it can cover those bases and more. The design is simple, the tone is just devastating. Oh yeah--if it were lost or stolen, I'd replace it immediately (duh!). I'm thoroughly impressed.

This is a fairly simple construct,3 knobs,tone pulls up for increase in harmonic content.

Very dynamic,easy to get the different sounds using Dave's instructions,Using a 1968 SFDR (with JBL K120), 52 Tele RI(Complete Vintique mod with 1st batch Bardens), Heritage H150CM with Seth Lovers ,Stock 92 LP Std....very open sounding OD with the premium being that it doesn't color the sound the way a TS9 or TS808 does-because it is a smple constuct,you can always just tweak to taste

Reliable-No backups

Dave Barber and Craig spent an hour each on the phone with me-I had initially balked but they assured me that if I had any issues with the pedal that they would make it right up to and including a refund if I wasn't satisfied.These are real world musicians and techs doing their collective damndest to make user friendly, affordable gear for the discerning guitarist...they are great people to deal with and get my recommendation.

Playing Blues,R&B,and Classic Rock...Have been playing 30 years and have been using Ibanez TS products since their inception(I remember buying a TS808 for 32$)NO MORE! I will be using the Direct Drive from here on out...if it were stolen,I would be on the phone in 30 seconds to get another.It is the best deal on the planet considering the cost and the issues surround the tonal coloring that most other OD units do-and I just tried a Landgraff unit and there is absolutely no way that it is even a dollar better than the Direct Drive,So ,that being said,the only thing I would change on this device is I would put a second foot switch for the harmonics boost as opposed to a push-pull pot...I'm sure Dave will come up with something regarding that after it's been on the market a while as he is known for wanting to build the best quality around-definitely a wonderful pedal at a wonderful price.

It's the basic 3-knob overdrive with the following catch: the Tone knob pulls up for a boost in lower midrange- to my ear, it simulates the effect of switching from high-watt Celestions to 25w Greenbacks. Overdrive clairty shifts along with this pull function, so players using a darker rig may find themselves turning the tone up a bit when the boost is engaged.

Guitars: '69 LP Custom, s'ash Tele with Antiquities, LP Special Historic. Amps include a RI Vox AC/30 with blues, '66 Pro Reverb and '62 Tremolux.

Very low noise for an overdrive, even with fairly dirty power direct from the wall. Sound quality is outstanding- unlike the dozens of TS-808 variants out there, this box cops real Old School Plexi preamp vibe and offers substantial volume boosting- even with the gain dialed low, you can pummel the input on a traditional non-MV tube amp without coating your basic guitar tone in sonic mud.

The DD is a very different beast from the old Barber Pump and Burn Unit (I haven't heard the newer 6-knob items) in that it's all about midrange clarity and complexity, even with the boost knob engaged, and the higher gain settings still preserve decent note separation for rhythm work, even with humbuckers.

Seems fiarly well built, about par for the course with the so-called "boutique" stuff I've seen, the best being MJM and SIB. I'm not expecting it to fail any time soon, and if it did, I suspect Dave Barber would stand behind it 100%.

Haven't dealt with Barber directly, but the couple of people I know who have weren't disappointed.

I'm using this box along with some analog delay and a Ross compressor clone, playing what's sometimes called "Cosmic American" music with an emphasis on traditional r&b. I'm playing with a really great keyboardist and 2 horns, so it's important that I find the right "seat" in the mix- any pedal which clogs up my sound prevents me from being able to do that, including a typical TS-9, is out. The DD is *in*, and in a big way- gives me anything from a slight edge for riffs and fills to big plexi lead tone, just with a twist of the gain knob. It maintains low end at parity volume, and the sustain/decay characteristics are as close to a high-voltage tube amp as any overdrive box I've heard in the past 20 years.

Add to it that the DD is 30-40% less expensive than alot of lesser circuits (including modded Ibanez boxes which don't offer true bypass switching), and you're looking at a great deal here.

Patches? We don' need no steenking patches.

This thing is easy to dial in, but also ultra versatile. The tone knob really only seems to be usable from noon plus.

Photcopied page "manual" gives good starting points.

It only gets an 8 because there was too little space in the box for the battery to fit well. I had to really work it to get the top back on.

Dang. Nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. I can hear most everything I do on the fretboard. Clarity.

Jes' gottit.

Dave Barber answers emails promptly.

Have to say that it has unparalleled clarity and crazy bang-for-buck value. With the clarity comes a bit of thin-ness, so I think I'll keep using my GS Wyllie fuzz pedals for high single note fatness. This is really the only pedal I've had that is so clear for chords and bass note riffs.

3 full-range, fully-functional, interative knobs. One is a push-pull tone knob for "fat harmonic boost".

G&L Legacy w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage, or 335 w/Duncan 59's into: Carr Rambler, Princeton Reverb, or Victoria Bandmaster. It is a very quiet, well-controled, and extreamely versatile pedal. It is the best sounding overdrive I have ever tried/used. I have/had Klon, FD2, TS-808, Super Duper, Dirty Blonde, TBIC, '69, ect. The most important point I can make about it is: it really does what Dave Barber
claims it does on his web site (www.barberelectronics.com). You can hear the pick hitting the strings and play full chords, even up on the Robben Ford Dumble setting! Amazing!!!

A1 build quality and components.

The best.

30 year professional. Blues, R&B , Rock, Funk. I'm buying another this week to use as a stand-alone unit (the one I have now is on my board). It is the "bomb" for a single "Swiss Army knife" pedal. I played Santana's "Europa" out last night and it killed. It fed-back and sustained just like I wanted it to at a perfect volume for a
small club. The harmonics on this pedal are incredible, and jump out at you w/punch and clarity. For real. Thank you Dave Barber.

The Direct Drive is basically an overdrive unit. Three knobs, level tone, gain. Level knob can be pulled to fatten up the tone. The manual offers some suggested settings. Start there or twist till you hear what you want.

Les Paul clones with seymour duncan JBs into the Direct Drive into Egnater (Rocktron) TOL 50 all tube amp clean channel with gain set modestly high. The Direct Drive gives a nice, smooth sustain with a singing quality to it. It does not provide heavy distortion by itself. It is very liquid and musical with a varied selection of very useable settings.

Haven't had it long, but Barber products are very well made.

David Barber is very responsive to email, etc.

I play a lot of classic rock and pop music. This pedal is well suited for these styles. It it very reasonably priced for a high quality, boutiqe pedal. I own, or have owned a lot of boutique pedals, and this one is a good deal. You can spend a lot more and do a lot worse than getting the Direct Drive.

This pedal produces great tones at every setting. There are certain ones, though, that nail the best classic tones of Marshall, Tweed OD, TS-808, and there's some modern OD amp tones as well. Crank the pedal and pull the tone knob up - it has a push/pull. Do yourself a favor, though - take a shortcut and go to the manual for the settings that will knock you out. Barber has it all figured out. It will only take a minute to be floored by this pedal.

I use mostly clean Fenders and OD them w/ pedals. Primarily, I use these guitars: Suhr Classic, Suhr Classic T, Suhr Chambered T, and PRS Custom 22. The Direct Drive sounds more like an amp than any pedal - and some amps - I've ever played. If you like the cranked vintage Marshall tone - 100 watts through a 4x12 cab, or the modded/hot-rodded Marshall, the overdriven Tweed tone, or the super-modded TS tone, this pedal has it covered - and from every angle. The noise level of the DD, even when at full blast, is far lower than I've come to expect from any pedal - especially OD and distortion pedals. And, it never sounds furry, mushy, or grossly distorted. It interacts very well with other pedals, too - true bypass helps that, I suppose. It really doesn't take much tweaking to get the classic tonal flavors, of which there are many, out of this pedal; each small tweak puts the pedal in another realm. It's very responsive. Easy to dial in Jimi, SRV, Beck, Allmans, Page, Buchanan and, yes, there is the sweetest Robben Ford tone - when you discover the push/pull tone knob (or read the manual), you'll find it - it's blissful. The TS-808 setting is one of my favorite settings, though, because it can be used for a shimmering, sparkling, tingly tone or all out Voodoo Chile - without the noise and the crappy bass of a TS. I love the Barber pedal line, no doubt, but this pedal, from the moment I plugged into it and heard those first clear, driven, wailing notes, came to the fore as my favorite. $99 just blows my mind.

Only had it for 2 weeks, but, by the looks of the construction and materials, it's on par with the rest of his work - which means it's durable. Will use it w/out a backup.

Dave is the best at this. Told me when he would send it, arrived when he said it would. Pedal does what he says it will do. Manual is most helpful. Actually, even discussed this pedal - the concept - with me before he ever built it! All around nice guy who knows music, electronics and tone.

I play mostly guitar-based instrumental music which covers rock, jazz, blues, Spanish, Tex-Mex, soul, island, etc. I spend most of my playing time in a recording studio. This pedal makes it easy to change my Fender's into Marshall's (that sound better than my Marshall!), and more. It gives me many ooutstanding amps in a single box! I own too many pedals to count, but I can say that I have 12 OD boxes (7 Barbers), all of which I think are high quality, but this one rules the roost now. Besides sounding great, it works well for rhythm and lead and from sparkling clean to massive OD, while covering everything in between. I could not find a setting I didn't like! I would seek immediate replacement if lost.

Very easy to use. Many good settings that cover much ground. Most versatile.

I use as my main playing guitars Fender Custom Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul. My amps are Fender Bassman for rhythm, ambience, clean lead and JCM 100 for heavy riffing and overdrive lead. I switch with an A/B box. Pedals are Barber Direct Drive, Teese RMC3 wah, Fuller Dejavibe, Line 6 delay modeler. I received the Barber pedal from an American fan who presented it while my band was on tour in USA. Because the Direct Drive is superior at Marshall overdrive tones, I sent home big JCM 100 amp and 4x10 speaker cabinet. The Barber pedal can perform the best Marshall,Tube Screamer, and overdrive tweed tones I have ever heard come from a pedal. And very unnoisy. Also, it is nice not to transport the big Marshall. Allman Brothers, SR Vaughn, Hendrix, Jeff Beck.

3 weeks on tour no problem

No contact with builder customer support.

We play heavy fusion including rock, jazz, blues, avant garde - Jeff Beck, Robin Trower, Dixie Dregs, Pekka Pajohla, Scott Henderson. I have been playing for 18 years since I was 8. I own many other gear. The new Direct Drive is my favorite pedal. I use it to replace my Fulltone, plus my JCM 100.

very easy, even easier than a Barber Burn Unit. The manual is very good..gives you good sample settings...

the sound is great. I gigged with this last weekend w/ my PRS Mccarty, Warmoth Ash Strat with alnico II;s and a jb jr., and my 1956 Historic Gibson Custom shop Gold Top with Duncan mimi humbuckers.i was able to get warren haynes/dickie bettes tones "liquid scream" sound . i set the vol. to 12 o'clock, the tone (w/ the fat pot pulled) at 12:30-2:00 and the gain to 11-2 o'clock. Into my Top Hat Club Deluxe (6v6's) the sound was unreal...my setup always changes, but i usually use a keeley compressor, my old 3 knob Tone pump, a Burn Unit, this Direct Drive and a custom clone chorus modded by alfonso hermida. i also use my customash start w/ lindy fralins and a barden bridge, a tokai love rock, andr a hamer eclipse. my amp is either the top hat, a fender super champ or a fender blues jr.

very reliable. i have 9 Barber pedals: a Edge Hog, Direct Drive, 2-6 knob Tone Pumps, 2-3 knob Tone Pumps, 2-4 knob Burn Units and a Dual Unit. I have never had a problem with any of them...

the best. kind, courteous, generous, prompt, "the customer is always right" attitude...on a par with Robert Keeley

i love my burn unit and tone pump, but this pedal has more gain than a burn unit but it is more complex, easier to dial in the tone and sounds more satisfying....a great compliment to the tone pump or a burn unit...set those units with lower gain and set the Direct Drive with higher gain...or just use the Direct Drive and use your volume pot on your guitar for gain changes....i have played blues and classic rock for over 28 years. i would replace this and might check out another for a dual set up...i like how it reacts to single coils and humbuckers equally well. ts-9s are too humpy in the mids for full humbuckers so this is a great overdrive for my les paul style guitars....

This unit is very simple to use, just three knobs, volume, tone and drive. The unit I got is actually a hand labeled prototype. There was no manual because this is a pre production unit, yet I am sure a child could operate this unit no problem!

I use a relic nocaster and a custom made frankenstrat with a bridge humbucker (holmes) and suhr v60 single coils. The direct drive gets me the best tones I have gotten from both my 66 Fender Deluxe reverb and my marshall 100 super trem. I already own and love a barber burn Unit but it worked best with the deluxe and was not a perfect match for the marshall, the direct drive sounds simply great with every tube amp I have tried it through, I am able to get cranked vintage marshall tones with either amp at any volume and tons of rich overdrive sounds from just a little juicy to nice sustaining lead tones. Best of all the tone control has a wider range than my Burn unit and this unit does NOT sound compressed like so many overdrives I have spent my hard earned gig money on! great overdrive tones from begining to end and of course true bypass for my clean tones.

This box looks plenty solid with a fulltone footswitch, even though it is a pre production I will be depending on it every weekend.

Dave is a nice guy who takes his time and returns emails and phone calls quickly.

I have been playing for 20+ years around the east coast, I have covered just about every type of music (mainly blues, rock and country these days) I am mainly a strat and tele player now but I played a les paul for years until my back said "no more!" I only play vintage tube amps, as a matter of fact when I got mine they were not vintage yet (I guess that makes me vintage). The direct drive has quickly become my favorite overdrive I have owned, it will be staying on my pedalboard next to my old ross compressor, teese wah and TC chorus, absolutely a best buy.